These Christmas Tree Cookies will be a unique addition to your holiday cookie tray! These easy cut out sandwich cookies are simple yet elegant- Eggless and nut-free!
Aren't these Christmas tree sandwich cookies adorable?
Christmas tree cookies are usually decorated with royal icing to create a beautiful design. However, I had to look at other creative or Khreative (... a shameless plugin 🙂) ways to make gorgeous Christmas cookies, because I'm not artistic with making pretty designs using royal icing. I made gingerbread star cookies using a similar technique.
So I borrowed the idea from the classic Linzer cookies, I sandwiched two eggless shortbread cookies with raspberry jam, as I did for the skull cookies to make them resemble Christmas ornaments and then finished with a heavy dusting of powdered sugar for a flocked Christmas tree effect! So beautiful!
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Why you'll love it?
- Beautiful, unique, and simple
- No eggs
- Nut-free
- Freeze the baked cookies and then decorate the day of serving
- Elegant Holiday cookie for your Christmas cookie tray
- Buttery, tender, and melt-in-your-mouth texture
How to make Christmas tree cookies?
You can find full printable recipe below, but here is a quick overview of the procedure along with step-by-step photos.
Step 7 - Using medium size Christmas tree cookie cutter cut out as many trees and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet spacing about 1-inch apart. Reroll scraps to cut out more trees.
👩🍳 Pro tip: Be careful not to punch out too many holes or make them too large, as this can cause the baked tops to break when assembling. Also, do not punch holes too close to the edge. You want them to remain sturdy.
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Step 10 - Chill the dough for at least one hour and bake at 350 degrees, until golden in color, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
👩🍳 Tip: The cut-out cookies may darken slightly more than the whole ones, but that's okay – we'll cover them with powdered sugar to hide any imperfections.
👩🍳 Tip - You can adjust the amount of powdered sugar to your liking—I went a bit heavy-handed to give them a more festive, flourished appearance.
Filling suggestions
I used raspberry jam to resemble red-colored ornaments. You can also any other vibrant colored jam like strawberry, mixed fruit or blueberry jams, or jellies.
Apart from jams, you can use also lemon curd, Nutella, chocolate ganache, or even colored icings.
Make ahead and storage
- Assembled Christmas tree cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days. Beyond that, they tend to soften from the moisture in the jam.
- Freeze the baked and cooled cookies (without any jam or powdered sugar) for up to two months. Decorate the day of serving.
Recipe tips
- Don't overfill with the jam, it will spread out from the edges when you are assembling the cookie sandwiches.
- Don't punch out too many holes, make them too large or punch holes close to the edges as this can cause the baked tops to break when assembling. You want them to remain sturdy.
- The number of cookies will depend on the size of your Christmas tree cookie cutter.
More unique cookie ideas for Christmas
Christmas Tree Cookies
Equipment
- Christmas tree cookie cutter
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (225 gms) at room temperature
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour (325 gms)
- ½ cup raspberry or strawberry jam or as needed
- additional confectioners sugar for dusting
Instructions
Make cookie dough
- Add butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla and salt into a medium bowl and cream using an electric beater, until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Add the all-purpose flour and continue mixing on low to medium speed until the dough begins to come together in lumps. Remove the beater and gently knead the dough into a smooth disc.
- Divide into two halves and roll each half between two sheets of parchment paper to ⅛ to ¼ inch thickness. Transfer the dough along with the parchment paper to the refrigerator to firm up (at least 4 hours or up to 2 days).
Cut and bake
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using medium size Christmas tree cookie cutter cut out as many trees and place them on the prepared baking sheet spacing about 1-inch apart. Reroll scraps to cut out more trees.
- Using a small round cutter, such as a small piping tip, punch out holes in half of the cookies. These will serve as the tops for the Christmas Linzer cookies.Pro tip: Be careful not to punch out too many holes, make them too large or punch holes close to the edges, as this can cause the baked tops to break when assembling. You want them to remain sturdy.
- Return the baking sheet to the fridge and chill the dough for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake cookies for 15 to 20 minutes or golden in color, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Tip: The cut-out cookies may darken slightly more than the whole ones, but that's okay – we'll cover them with powdered sugar to hide any imperfections.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before assembling. At this stage, you can freeze them for up to 2 months and decorate them when you're ready for the holidays.
Decorate
- Spread a layer of jam on the whole cookies, then gently place the cut-out cookies on top, holding them on both the edges, so you don't touch the beautiful sugar. If desired, you can also add a little extra jam into the cut-out to give them a full appearance.
- The filled cookies will soften after a day when stored. If you want the cookies to stay crisp, assemble the day of serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information, based on third-party calculations, should be seen as estimates, not guarantees, as various factors like product types, brands, processing methods, and more can alter the nutritional content in recipes.
All contents and images are my original work, unless and otherwise mentioned. Do not use my recipes or images without linking back to www.kitchenathoskins.com.
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