Description
Delight in festive fun with these Christmas Tree Cookies featuring rich chocolate cookies topped with colorful vanilla icing perfectly piped into holiday shapes. Soft, slightly crisp, and decorated with green, brown, and yellow icing, these cookies are ideal for holiday celebrations and gift-giving.
Ingredients
Scale
Chocolate Cookies
- 1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1 TBSP Cornstarch
- 1/2 cup Unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 3/4 cup Regenerative Organic Certified® Cane Sugar from Wholesome
- 2 TBSP Wholesome Organic Fair Trade Light Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
- 1 Egg yolk, room temperature
- 1/2 cup Regenerative Organic Certified® Cane Sugar from Wholesome (for rolling)
Vanilla Icing
- 1 cup Wholesome Organic Fair Trade Powdered Confectioners Sugar, sifted
- 1-2 TBSP Milk
- 1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
- Green food dye
- Brown food dye
- Yellow food dye
Instructions
- Prepare dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour and unsweetened cocoa powder. Add baking soda, cornstarch, and salt; whisk to combine evenly.
- Mix wet ingredients and sugars: Using a mixer on high speed, beat the melted, cooled unsalted butter with cane sugar and brown sugar for 2 minutes until creamy and combined.
- Add egg yolk and vanilla: Mix in the pure vanilla extract and room temperature egg yolk on medium speed until well combined. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until combined to form dough.
- Preheat and prepare baking sheets: Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes before shaping.
- Scoop and coat dough balls: Use a small cookie scoop to portion dough balls. Roll each dough ball in the 1/2 cup cane sugar. Place about 12 dough balls on each prepared cookie sheet, leaving space for spreading.
- Bake cookies: Bake one sheet at a time in the preheated oven for 10 minutes or until the cookie edges are set but centers still soft.
- Cool cookies: Let cookies sit on the hot baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. For any cookies that puff up too much, gently flatten them while warm using your hand for easier decorating.
- Prepare vanilla icing: In a medium bowl, sift the powdered confectioners sugar. Stir in pure vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of milk, whisking until smooth and thick enough to pipe defined lines; add additional milk if necessary to achieve consistency.
- Color icing: Divide the icing evenly into three small bowls. Tint one bowl green, one brown, and one yellow using food dye. Transfer each colored icing into separate piping bags. Cut piping bag tips so that green icing flows from a slightly larger opening; brown and yellow should have small openings for detailed work.
- Decorate cookies: Use the green icing to pipe the Christmas tree shape with a back-and-forth motion. Use brown icing to create the tree trunk and yellow icing to pipe a star at the top. Optionally, add white nonpareil sprinkles to accentuate decoration.
Notes
- Flour should be spooned and leveled into measuring cups or measured using a kitchen scale to prevent compacting which can dry out cookies and inhibit spreading.
- For high altitude baking, add an extra 1 tablespoon of flour to the dry ingredients to maintain texture.
- Remove dairy ingredients like butter from the refrigerator at least 2 hours before baking to ensure proper mixing and texture.
