Description
These festive Christmas Tree Cookies are rich chocolate treats decorated with vibrant vanilla icing to resemble holiday trees. The chocolate cookie base is soft and slightly chewy, topped with colorful green, brown, and yellow icing to create a fun and delicious seasonal dessert perfect for holiday celebrations.
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
- Optional: white nonpareil sprinkles for decoration
Instructions
- Prepare Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour and unsweetened cocoa powder. Add baking soda, cornstarch, and salt, and mix to combine thoroughly.
- Cream Butter and Sugars: Using a mixer, beat the melted unsalted butter, regenerative organic cane sugar, and light brown sugar on high speed for 2 minutes until well combined and creamy.
- Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients: Add pure vanilla extract and egg yolk to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix on medium speed until incorporated. Then, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on low speed until just combined to form the cookie dough.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Sheets: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes before handling.
- Form Cookies: Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough balls and roll each ball in regenerative organic cane sugar to coat. Place 12 cookie dough balls evenly spaced on each prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake Cookies: Bake one sheet at a time in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are set but the centers are still soft.
- Cool Cookies: Let the cookies cool on the hot pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. If any cookies puff up excessively, gently flatten them with your hand while still warm for easier decorating.
- Make Vanilla Icing: Sift powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Add pure vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of milk, whisking until the icing is thick and smooth. Add more milk as needed to reach piping consistency.
- Color Icing: Divide the icing into three bowls. Add green, brown, and yellow food dye to each bowl, mixing well. Fill three piping bags with each colored icing. Cut the tips of the yellow and brown bags smaller for fine lines; keep the green tip larger for broader strokes.
- Decorate Cookies: Use green icing to pipe back-and-forth strokes to create the tree shape on each cookie. Use brown icing to pipe the tree trunk at the base and yellow icing to pipe a star at the top of each tree. Optionally, sprinkle white nonpareil sprinkles on top for a festive look.
Notes
- Flour: Be sure to spoon and level the flour or weigh it with a kitchen scale to avoid compacted flour which can dry out cookies and prevent proper spreading.
- High Altitude Baking: If baking at high altitudes, add an extra 1 tablespoon of flour to the dough for better texture.
- Dairy Ingredients: Remove butter from the refrigerator about 2 hours before baking to bring to room temperature for better mixing and texture.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 130 kcal
- Sugar: 12 g
- Sodium: 75 mg
- Fat: 6 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2.2 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 18 g
- Fiber: 1.5 g
- Protein: 1.5 g
- Cholesterol: 25 mg
