Less than two weeks til Christmas! Only 12 days to go. The time is just flying by and for most of us, there is still plenty to do. I would guess that your exterior Christmas Decor is done and the inside of your home looks cheery too. I’m sure that many of you have your Christmas trees up inside as well. Don’t forget to take pictures of your real tree and send it to the Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario to be entered into their perfect Christmas tree draw.
So what else is there to do to prepare for the holidays? Some of you might be finishing off Christmas cards to send off to friends and family. Others of you might still be trapped in the malls desperately looking for the newest must-have items for your husband/wife/kids. If you managed to extract yourself from the horror fun of Christmas shopping, maybe now is the time to step into the kitchen. You know the big guy dressed in red needs his quota of cookies on Christmas Eve. Store bought just isn’t the same. Better pick up some flour and more icing sugar too, as today I’m throwing some Christmas Tree cookie recipes your warm. It’s at the top of Santa’s list! You wouldn’t want him to drop you to the naughty list now, would you?
CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIE RECIPES
To start you off with, here’s a fairly easy Christmas Tree Cookie recipe from Allrecipes.com, that makes 5 dozen cookies;
CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Directions:
- Mix confectioners’ sugar, butter or margarine, egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Stir in flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide dough into halves. On lightly floured cloth-covered board, roll each half out to 3/16 inch thick. on lightly floured cloth-covered board. Cut into Christmas shapes.
- Bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 7 to 8 minutes. Let cool on wire racks and decorate as desired.
How about something that is a little more challenging? This Christmas Tree Cookie recipe from TLC has fairly simple ingredients, but the trick is in the assembly. It makes 6-8 servings;
CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES
Ingredients:
-
- 2 rolls (18 ounces each) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
- 2 to 3 tubes (4-1/4 ounces) green decorator icing with tips
- 1 tube (4-1/4 ounces) yellow decorator icing
- 1 tube (4-1/4 ounces) red decorator icing
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cut parchment baking paper to fit two large baking sheets. Tape two large sheets of parchment to work surface with masking tape. Unwrap one roll of cold dough and roll out to 1/4-inch thick on parchment. Flour rolling pin as necessary to keep dough from sticking. With small sharp knife, cut out one 7-inch circle* and one 6-1/2-inch circle. Untape parchment and transfer circles onto on baking sheet. Wrap remaining dough in plastic wrap and return to refrigerator.*Use a compass to draw 12 circles, each one 1/2 inch smaller, on parchment paper; cut out and use as patterns to cut dough circles. For a “free-form” look, use various bowls, glasses, and biscuit cutters to trace and cut out 12 graduated circles.
- Unwrap second roll of cold dough and repeat process, cutting out 6-inch circle and 5-1/2-inch circle. Transfer onto second baking sheet and bake both sheets 10 to 14 minutes, checking for doneness after 10 minutes. Cookies should be light golden brown. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes until firm, then slide parchment paper and cookies onto racks. Cool completely before removing from parchment.
- Continue repeating steps, making 8 more circles, each 1/2 inch smaller in diameter. Reduce baking time as circles get smaller.
- To assemble tree, secure largest cookie to serving platter with dab of frosting. Using leaf tip and green icing, pipe leaves around outer edge of cookie. Place large dab of frosting in center of cookie. Add next biggest cookie and repeat. Continue adding cookies, largest to smallest.
- With small plain tip, pipe yellow garlands around tree. Use red frosting to add “ornaments.” Pipe additional decorations, if desired.
- Serve cookies individually by separating layers or cut into pieces using serrated knife.
Now for you Christmas bakers extraordinaire! I present you with a Christmas Tree Cookie Recipe that beats all, from not martha. Book yourself about a week or so off, to create these masterpieces.
3-D CHRISTMAS TREE GINGERBREAD COOKIES
Ingredients for Gingerbread:
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup dark molasses
- 1 Tbsp water
Simple Syrup Glue:
To make a simple syrup glue: two parts sugar to one part water. Combine these in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Let this cool and pour into an airtight container, store at room temperature. Or, you can use this right from the saucepan once it’s cooled enough to not be dangerous.
Directions:
*Honest to God, this one looks complicated. I usually just use the original site’s directions, but not this time. Start by making your gingerbread, then just head directly to “not martha” for her step-by-step guide on how to make these intricate cookies. She offers lots of directions and plenty of pictures to help you along the way, so its worth the visit. The best part about these cookies though is that they do not need icing to hold them together.
Happy Christmas Tree Cookie baking! HO, HO, HO!