Christmas Tree Cookies
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Easy Christmas tree cookies recipe, homemade with simple ingredients. These cut out gingerbread cookies are soft but firm and lightly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.
These are the perfect cookies to decorate with the family or they can even be given as a homemade gift. Perfectly spiced and and fun to make, they will make this holiday season one to remember. Looking for more gingerbread ideas? Try these Easy Gingerbread Cookies {With Cake Mix} or these Jumbo Gingerbread Men Cookies, or this Gingerbread House for more fun!
How To Make Christmas Tree Cookies Recipe From Scratch?
- Cream butter and sugar– Until light and fluffy
- Mix in remaining wet ingredients- This includes egg, molasses, and vinegar.
- Add dry ingredients- This includes flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon powder, cloves powder, nutmeg powder.
- Chill dough– In the fridge.
- Roll dough– Between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
- Use a tree shaped cookie cutter to make cut outs– Remove excess dough around the shapes.
- Bake– Until edges are firm.
- Decorate– With melted chocolate and m&m candies.
- Enjoy- Let chocolate set and dig in!
How To Decorate Christmas Cookies? (Christmas Tree Cookie Decorating Ideas)
Candies– Such as broken pieces of candy canes, crushed peppermint candies, small chocolates, chocolate chips, or any other seasonal candies you can find. Red and green candied are classic choices.
Sprinkles– Use fun festive shapes or sizes to create ornaments, lights, garlands etc.
Royal icing– This is my no- fail recipe: How To Make Royal Icing Recipe. It dries hard and can be piped with various decorating tips.
Glace icing– This icing also dries hard and is egg-free: Glace Icing. It can also be piped with various decorating tips.
Buttercream icing– This will stay soft and can be colored with gel colors or liquid food coloring: American Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Other frosting– Try Caramel Frosting, Chocolate Ganache Frosting, or Easy Maple Frosting.
Variations For Cut Out Christmas Tree Biscuits
Christmas tree sugar cookies– Use my cut out Chocolate Sugar Cookies recipe or these Classic Cut Out Sugar Cookies recipe instead.
Meringue Christmas trees– Instead of the recipe below, make these Easy Meringue Cookies recipe to pipe the meringue into festive shapes like trees and wreaths.
3D stacked Christmas tree cookies– Cut out star shapes in varying sizes from biggest to smallest, and stack them with frosting between each layer. Typically, buttercream frosting is used.
Try other decorations- The classic choice is royal icing or buttercream. I prefer melted chocolate since it’s easy and dries quickly.
Make it gluten free– Use gluten free flour in place of all purpose flour. The texture will be different.
Tips And Techniques
How soon before Christmas can I make these cookies? You can store refrigerated dough for up to 2-3 days before making the cookies. If you freeze the dough, you can make it 1-2 months in advance.
Don’t have a tree cookie cutter? Just cut elongated triangle shapes with a knife, or you can make your own tree template on cardboard paper and use that as a guide.
How many cookies will this recipe make? The number of cookies you get from this recipe will depend on how thick you roll your cookie dough and how big or small your cookie cutter is.
How do I know when the cookies are done? They are typically done when edges are firm and center is slightly soft but not jiggly.
Chill dough-I highly recommend chilling it for 1 hour in the fridge. That makes dough easier to handle, less sticky, and most importantly, the cookies hold their shape better during baking.
Divide the dough into 2 portions and work with one portion at a time– It’s just easier this way. I keep the unused portion in the fridge until I am ready to use it.
How thick/thin to roll out gingerbread dough? Mine were about 1/2 inch thick. If you make them 1/4 inch thick, they are crispier.
Adjust spices– Add more or less cloves, cinnamon nutmeg, ginger depending on your personal preference. You can also try pumpkin pie spice mix.
Use unsalted butter- Because that prevents these cookies from becoming too salty. Also, butter cannot be replaced with shortening
Use pre-colored candy melts– Because you can skip the step of coloring white chocolate.
Storage
Room temperature– Store in a cookie jar for 3 days.
Refrigerate- In a sealed container for up to 5 days.
Freeze– Undecorated cookies can be stored in a sealed container for up to 1 month. Thaw overnight in the fridge and then, decorate them.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
- Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
- Snowball Cookies (Wedding Cookies)
- Cranberry Orange Cookies {Shortbread}
- Jam Thumbprint Cookies {Soft & Buttery}
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies {With Cake Mix}
- White Chocolate Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
- Eggnog Cookies {Soft & Chewy}
- Easy Stained Glass Cookies
- Snowflake Cookies
- White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- Nutter Butter Penguin Cookies
Christmas Tree Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter, Unsalted, Room temperature
- 1 cup Granulated sugar
- 1 Egg, Large
- 1 cup Molasses
- 2 tbsp Vinegar
- 5 cups All-purpose flour
- 1.5 tsp Baking soda
- 2 tsp Ground ginger, Fresh
- 1-2 tsp Cinnamon powder, Adjust according to your preference
- 1 tsp Cloves powder
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg powder
- 1 cup Melted chocolate , For decorating
- 1 cup Mini m&m candies, For decorating
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg, molasses, and vinegar and mix until roughly combined.
- Add flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon powder, cloves powder, nutmeg powder and mix until combined. Use your hands, if necessary to bring the mixture together into a ball of dough.
- Chill dough in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Divide the dough into 2 portions and work with one portion at a time. It's just easier this way. I keep the unused portion in the fridge until I am ready to use it.
- Roll dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Mine were about 1/2 inch thick. If you make them 1/4 inch thick, they are crispier.
- Use a tree shaped cookie cutter to make cut outs.
- Remove excess dough around the shapes.
- Transfer sheet of parchment paper with the cut outs to a baking tray.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until edges are firm and center is slightly soft but not jiggly.
- Remove from oven and let them cool completely in the tray.
- Then, gently remove cookies from parchment paper.
- Filling a piping bag with melted chocolate and cut a small slit at the pointy end.
- Drizzle chocolate on top of each cookie.
- Stick m&m candies before the chocolate sets. Enjoy!
Notes
- Read all my tips above.
- The number of cookies you get from this recipe will depend on how thick you roll your cookie dough and how big or small your cookie cutter is.
- Cookies can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days or they can be stored in a cookie jar at room temperature for 3 days.
