I love themed and seasonal baking, and these Christmas Tree Cookies are perfect to do with the kids in the run up to Christmas. They would also make a great addition to any North Pole Breakfast.
Jump to RecipeThe recipe for the Christmas tree cookies is an old favourite of mine. It’s basically a sugar cookie recipe that has been tweeked over the years. It forms the basis of most of the cookies we bake and gets rolled out every birthday party, Easter and Halloween. Occasionally I mix it up a little and change the flavouring. For instance for Halloween one year I used orange flavouring and added in chocolate chips. They always turn out lovely, but in my opinion (and many others including the kids!) the original recipe is the best. They almost taste like shortbread, and have a really nice snap.
The icing on the other hand has been a bit hit and miss over the years. Royal icing worked well, but I didn’t like the idea of giving raw egg whites to mine and others’ children. Finally I think I’ve cracked it, an icing that has the right consisentcy, is nice and shiney and most importantly taste great. The kids declared it’s the best icing ever!
So if you would like to try and recreate our Christmas Tree Cookies, read on or pin for later!
Pin Christmas Tree Cookies For Later!
Top Tips On Making Christmas Tree Cookies
I have had a lot of practice over the years of making cookies. It’s one of the kids favourite things to do in the kitchen. We have quite a collection of cookie cutters now, so this recipe can be adapted to any occasion.
Obviously in this recipe we went for Christmas trees, but the recipe is suitable for all shapes and sizes of cookies.
One top tip is to roll the dough out between two sheets of greaseproof paper. It means you keep your work top and rolling pin clean, and no need for flour everywhere. It is also a great mess free way for the kids to roll out the dough.
Also don’t be tempted to skip the refrigerating bit. Keeping the cookie dough as cool as possible before putting it in the oven helps the cookies keep their shape and stops them spreading to much in the baking process.
This recipe made approximately 12 cookies. It obviously depends on the size of your cookie cutter, but I always make up the whole recipe and freeze any left over dough for another day.
With the icing I make it up in smaller batches, usually enough to ice half the cookies. I’m not very quick with my piping, so this way it means I don’t waste dried up icing.
This recipe uses Golden syrup, but you could substitute this for corn syrup if you like. I haven’t tried it though, so I am not sure how it would affect the consistency. It may be that you would need to add a little more icing sugar.
When colouring your icing, it’s best to use gel or paste colours. I like the Sugarflair pastes. These have a strong colour and don’t seem to affect the consistency of the icing. Adding just a few drops of liquid food colouring can turn your perfect icing into a drippy liquid mess.
Icing should be easy to pipe but have enough surface tension to hold the line, but should also easily merge together. To judge the consistnecy of my icing I like to get a spoon of icing and tilt it to ‘pour’ the icing off. It should take a few seconds before the icing starts to run off the spoon. If it happens immediately then the icing is too watery, if it plops off the spoon and doesn’t slowly run then it’s too thick. Not very scientific, and I’m not sure if that’s the correct way but it works for me.
If your icing is too watery, add a tablespoon of icing sugar and mix again. Too thick? Add 1/2 tbsp of milk at a time until you reach your desired consistency.
When I pipe I tend to do the outlines first on all the cookies, then fill in. I use a cocktail stick to push the icing and fill in any little holes.
For these cookies I piped the star first, then the outline of the tree and filled it in. Finally I added some lines of white icing and some sugar confetti for baubles. To be honest you could decorate them in any way you wish. Even white icing with Christmas coloured sprinkles look equally effective and taste just as great.
Like all things, perfect cookie decorating takes practice. I’m not there yet by any means, but every batch get a little better. As I bake for my family and my children’s enjoyment, I’m not too much of perfectionist when it comes to decorating.
How to Make Christmas Tree Cookies- The Recipes
Christmas Tree Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
Ingredients
- 175 g salted butter
- 150 g caster sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 280 g plain flour
Instructions
- Beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat slowly until all ingredients are well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as required.
- Add half of the flour and fold in. When it is all mixed and the other half and fold in until it starts to form a ball.
- Divide in half and roll out each hlaf to approximatley 5mm thickeness. The easiest way to do this is between two sheets of greaseproof paper. Repeat with the other half.
- Refrigerate for about an hour.
- Cut the dough into your chosen shapes, in this case Christmas trees. Place the cut out cookies on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and refrigerte for about an hour.
- Pre heat the oven to 160 C (fan oven) or 180 C. Place cookies in preheated oven for about 7 minutes. You want them just cooked through. As soon as the edges start to go a little brown they're done.
- Allow to cool for a little on the baking tray, then transfer them to a wire rack to allow them to cool completely.
Icing For Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 120 g icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 1-2 tbsp milk
- food colouring
Instructions
- Mix together the icing sugar, vanilla extract and golden syrup.
- Slowly add the milk 1/2 tbsp at a time and mix until desired consistnecy is required
- Add food colouring to all the icing, or sperate into bowls if you want more than one colour.
That’s it. A beautiful and delicious Christmas tree cookies, perfect for a North Pole Breakfast or just as a festive treat. If you do give them a go, then I’d love to hear about what you thought in the comments, and would really appreciate it if you give the recipe an honest review.
Enjoy!
Kerry x
5 Comments
I used to make Christmas tree cookies with the children when I was a registered child minder #kidsandkreativity@_karendennis
I’m loving all your christmas cheer, its making me feel quite festive! #KidsAndKreativity
These cookies look so pretty, and very christmassy indeed! Thank you for the icing recipe as well, we’ll have to give this a try I think! x #KidsandKreativity
These look fab an seem like fun to make as well. Thank you for sharing your special recipe for icing! x #KidsAndKreativity
Those cookies look amazing and I bet they taste equally amazing. I’ll have to give your cookie and icing recipe a try – Sophie would absolutely love to help make these. Have pinned for future reference! #KidsandKreativity