Recipe: Smoked Salmon Christmas Trees

The golden years for me (and apparently several others, who have the Gourmet Collection Cookbooks) were clearly the mid- 1980s through the early 1990s. This Christmas hors d’oeuvre is from the 1987  cookbook which reflects the previous year’s seductive photos and recipes. Jane Montant was the editor and I think her sense of style and selection of recipes is peerless as is the photography of Romulo Yanes.  When I first made the two Christmas Dinner horses doovers, (as we call them) the Radish and Parsley Butter Wreaths were not a crowd favorite, even though they looked pretty. But the Smoked Salmon Christmas Trees have remained a family favorite and guest pleaser for over twenty years. The trees are a bit fiddley  but they can be done in the morning, then covered with cling wrap and kept in the fridge.  The night before is okay too, but make sure you wrap them doubly tight so there is no drying out. I use a large sandwich loaf of light whole wheat bread and usually get two trees out of each slicer.  Hand slicing actually works better than having it sliced by the bakery – that way you get thinner slices.  Stick with the unsalted butter, it actually tastes better than cream cheese in this instance. If your cutter is really sharp, you can spread the slice with a thin layer of butter, a layer of the the smoked salmon and then cut out the whole tree, but if your cutter is not sharp, best to follow the original instructions.  Tweezers are helpful with the onion or scallion.