Best 12 Christmas Tree Cookies Recipes

CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• 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.

CUTOUT CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• On a large sheet of parchment paper, lightly flour both sides of 1 disk green dough, cover with more parchment, and roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat with second disk. Remove top sheets of parchment.
• On a lightly floured work surface, roll pieces of red dough into thin snakes. Arrange on top of green dough in desired pattern. (If dough gets too soft to work with, refrigerate 10 minutes before continuing.)
• Roll yellow and plain dough into pea-size balls and arrange on top of green dough in desired pattern.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Top dough with more parchment and gently roll over dough until decorative pieces are flush with green dough.
• Carefully remove top sheets of parchment. With a 4-to-5-inch-tall tree-shaped cutter, cut dough. Transfer dough on parchment to baking sheets and freeze until firm, 15 minutes.
• Remove cutouts from excess dough and transfer to newly lined baking sheets. Bake until set, 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well., Divide dough in half. Tint half of the dough green; knead well to distribute color evenly. Leave remaining dough white. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle., On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Use tree-shaped cookie cutters with identical shapes, measuring 21/2 in., 3 in., 4 in. and 41/2 in. Cut out an even number of cookies with each size cookie cutter., Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately cut half of each size tree cookies in half from top to bottom. If tree cookie cutters have trunks, trim trunks off trees, creating a flat base. Remove to wire racks to cool., For frosting, in a large bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, water, meringue powder, vanilla and cream of tartar. Beat on high speed for 8-10 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Divide frosting in half. Tint half of the frosting green; leave remaining frosting white. Cover frosting with damp paper towels or plastic wrap between uses., To glaze trees: In a small bowl, thin 1 cup green frosting with 2-3 Tbsp. water until frosting reaches pourable consistency. Place matching pairs of whole and halved cookies on a wire rack over waxed paper. Pour icing over cookies; spread with a metal spatula to completely cover top and sides of cookies. Let dry completely. Assemble and decorate as desired. , To make a four-sided tree: Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry or resealable plastic bag; insert round pastry tip #5. Fill with green or white frosting to match the tree you are decorating. Pipe a line of frosting along the cut edge of one of the halved cookies; press frosted edge along center of a matching whole cookie. Let dry until firm.Stand up partially assembled tree. Attach one matching cookie half to the opposite side of the tree by piping frosting along the center of the whole cookie. Let dry completely. Decorate as desired., To make an eight-sided tree: Assemble as described for four-sided tree, using white or green cookies. Using matching colored frosting, attach four more cookie halves; halves should be one half-size smaller than whole center cookie. Let dry completely. Decorate as desired., To make Christmas lights decoration: Using a pastry or resealable plastic bag, round pastry tip #2 and green frosting, pipe cords. Attach sprinkles for lights. Let dry completely. , To make snow-tipped decoration: Using a pastry or resealable plastic bag, large round pastry tip #8 and white frosting, pipe snow on tips of branches. Sprinkle with edible glitter. Let dry completely., To make garland decoration: Using a pastry or resealable plastic bag, medium star pastry tip #21 and either white or green frosting, pipe garlands around trees. Decorate with sprinkles if desired. Let dry completely.

MINTY CHRISTMAS TREE CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• For the cookies: Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Mix the mint and vanilla extracts with the egg in a small bowl with a fork.
• Beat together the butter, granulated sugar and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on low speed until the butter has picked up the sugars, about 30 seconds. (If using an electric hand mixer, beat about 2 minutes.) Increase the speed to medium and beat, stopping halfway to scrape the bowl, until slightly creamy, about 1 minute (about 3 minutes with a hand mixer).
• Reduce the speed to low, slowly add the egg mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture a heaping cup at a time in 2 additions, stopping a few times to scrape the bowl and beaters. (If using a hand mixer, increase the speed as the dough gets thicker to keep the beaters spinning.) Once all the flour is just incorporated, increase the speed to medium (higher with a hand mixer) and beat until the dough is very smooth, about 2 minutes (about 5 minutes with a hand mixer).
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and bring it together. Divide the dough into 2 even pieces, each about 11 ounces. Shape each piece into a 6-inch square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.
• Remove one of the dough squares from the refrigerator and let soften until just pliable but still cool and firm, about 15 minutes. Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• Dust a piece of parchment with flour. Dust the dough square with flour and roll it out on the parchment to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Lift the dough occasionally by sliding a metal spatula or bench scraper underneath to make sure it isn't sticking to the parchment. Cut out Christmas trees with a 2-inch cutter as close together as possible and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between the trees. Gather together the scraps and roll and cut more cookies. Chill the cookies on the baking sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking.
• Bake, rotating the baking sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through, until the cookies are light golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool the cookies about 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, remove the second dough square from the refrigerator to soften until just pliable but still cool and firm, about 15 minutes. Repeat the rolling, cutting, chilling and baking procedures with the second dough square.
• For the green royal icing: Combine the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons water and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the frosting thickens. The icing should be pure white and thick but not fluffy and bubbly. (If the frosting is overbeaten, it will get aerated, which makes it harder to work with. If this happens, let the frosting sit for a bit to settle, then use a rubber spatula to vigorously beat and smooth out the icing.) Add the green and red food coloring and beat until evenly distributed and the color is a deep hunter green. Put the icing in a resealable plastic bag and snip the corner to make a tiny opening (or put the icing in a piping bag with a 1/16-inch tip).
• To decorate: Pipe a dot of icing onto the top point of each tree. Stick a chocolate nonpareil candy on each dot. Pipe the icing onto the cookies in zigzags to make a tree design. Sprinkle white nonpareils around the icing as snow. Let the icing set at room temperature, at least 1 hour.

STACKED CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Place cookie dough in a large bowl; let stand at room temperature to soften, 5-10 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add flour; beat until blended., On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Using a floured 2-in. round cookie cutter, cut out 18 cookies. Repeat with 1-1/2-in. and 1-in. round cookie cutters. For remaining dough, use a floured 1/2-in. star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out 9 stars. , Sprinkle round cookies with colored sugar. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until edges are light brown, 6-9 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely., For each Christmas tree, pipe frosting on top of a Rolo candy for a trunk; top with a 2-in. cookie. Pipe frosting on top and bottom of a Necco wafer; place in center of cookie. Top with another 2-in. cookie. Repeat layers with two 1-1/2-in. cookies and two 1-in. cookies, using Smarties between the smaller layers. , For stars, color a small amount of frosting yellow and pipe onto cookies; attach to the tops of trees using additional frosting. Thin remaining frosting with water; drizzle over edges. Decorate with nonpareils.

PECAN SHORTBREAD CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 325°F. Spray or lightly grease 2 large cookie sheets. In large bowl, beat butter and powdered sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and food color. On low speed, beat in flour just until mixed. Stir in chopped pecans.
• Divide dough into 4 equal parts; shape each into ball. Place 2 balls of dough on each cookie sheet, on opposite ends. With rolling pin or floured fingers, gently flatten and shape each ball into 6-inch circle. With large knife, divide and cut each round into 8 wedges, slightly separating each cut with knife. Poke tops of wedges with fork, and place 1 pecan half in middle of each outer edge to make tree trunk.
• Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until firm but not brown. While still warm, cut into wedges again. Cool completely on cookie sheets, about 30 minutes.
• Place cooled tree wedges on cooling racks or waxed paper. Place baking chips in small resealable freezer plastic bag. Microwave on High 40 to 60 seconds, turning bag over after 30 seconds. Squeeze bag gently until chips are melted and smooth. Cut small tip off one corner of bag, and drizzle side to side over wedges to make tree garland. Sprinkle with sugar Top each tree with star.

SNOW-CAPPED CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. Grate 2 oz of the white chocolate. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, egg, flour, almond extract, 2 oz grated white chocolate and green food color until dough forms.
• Divide dough into 6 pieces. Press each piece into 6-inch round. Cut each round into 8 wedges; separate wedges. On ungreased cookie sheet, place wedges 2 inches apart. Under each wedge, place half of 1 pretzel stick for tree trunk.
• Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute. Remove from cookie sheet. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
• Line cookie sheet with waxed paper. In small microwavable bowl, microwave remaining 4 oz white chocolate and the shortening uncovered on High 30 to 60 seconds, stirring every 15 seconds, until melted. Dip top of each cookie in white chocolate mixture, allowing excess to drip off. If desired, decorate with decorator sprinkles or sugars. Place cookies on waxed paper; refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Tint dough with food color as desired. Shape dough into 2 disks, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
• Roll out 1 disk on a lightly floured piece of parchment to a 1/8- to 1/4-inch thickness. Repeat with remaining disk. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Using a tree cutter, cut out trees. Using a #12 Ateco pastry tip, cut out ornaments within trees. Working with dough in a contrasting color, use the same rectangular cutter to cut out puzzle pieces that fit within cutouts. Transfer all shapes and pieces to parchment-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Fit puzzle pieces into cookies. Refrigerate 30 minutes more.
• Bake until cookies are firm, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks; let cool completely.

RETRO TINSEL CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, flour, melted butter and egg until soft dough forms.
• On floured surface, roll dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut with 3-inch tree-shaped cookie cutter; place cutouts 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 20 minutes.
• In large microwavable bowl, stir 1 1/4 cups frosting and the food color until blended. Microwave uncovered 25 to 30 seconds or until warmed and thinner consistency. Dip top side of each cookie into glaze, letting excess drip off. Place cookie right side up on cooling rack placed over cookie sheet or waxed paper. Rewarm frosting mixture in microwave to maintain dipping consistency, if needed. If desired, place 1 chocolate candy on top of each tree. Let stand about 2 hours or until set. Store covered in airtight container at room temperature with waxed paper between layers.

STRING-LIGHT CHRISTMAS-TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture, beating just until combined. Divide dough in half, transfer each to plastic wrap, form into disks, wrap tightly, and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days (or freeze up to 1 month).
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Let 1 disk of dough stand at room temperature until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Stamp out tree shapes with an approximately 4-inch-tall cookie cutter, transferring cutouts to parchment-lined baking sheets as you work. Use a star-shaped aspic cutter to stamp out tree toppers from dough scraps. Repeat with remaining disk of dough. Freeze cutouts until firm, about 15 minutes.
• Bake, rotating rack positions halfway through, until cookies are set and edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks; let cool completely.
• Transfer melted chocolate to a pastry bag fitted with a small, plain tip, such as Ateco #2 (or use a small freezer bag, and snip the tiniest possible hole in one corner). Starting at top of each tree, drizzle chocolate in a random back-and-forth pattern, then adhere candies intermittently to mimic string lights. Pipe a small dot of chocolate at very top of tree, and adhere a cookie star. Let stand at room temperature until chocolate sets, about 4 hours; or refrigerate just until set, about 15 minutes. (Do not keep cookies in refrigerator.) Store in an airtight container at room temperature, between sheets of parchment, up to 1 week.

ROSEMARY SHORTBREAD CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. In another bowl, whisk flour, rosemary and sea salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture., Divide dough in half. Shape each into a disk. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm enough to roll., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 4-1/2 by 2-1/2-in. tree-shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 in. apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. If desired, decorate with colored sugar., Bake until edges begin to brown, 14-16 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. , For frosting, beat confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and enough water to reach desired consistency. Divide frosting and add food coloring. Decorate cookies with frosting and nonpareils.

CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream butter, add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add vanilla and lemon juice.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt and add to creamed mixture and mix well.
• Chill, then roll dough to about 1/8 inch or thicker.
• Cut into various sized Christmas trees.
• Squeeze bottom of trunk a little so it will fit into jelly wreaths when baked.
• Bake in preheated hot oven at 425 degrees F for 5 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool. Cover with frosting; decorate.
• For Frosting:.
• Heat and boil the 1/2 cup butter in heavy saucepan until lightly browned; do not burn.
• Stir in 3 cups powdered sugar and vanilla.
• Add water a few drops at a time until frosting is of spreading consistency.
• Frost cookies, then decorate with cake decorator using colored icing of your choice and top off with sprinkles, bits of candied cherries, etc.
• To stand, set each in ring of bought jellied candies.