Description
Create a festive Cookie Christmas Tree with spiced, buttery cookies and delicate royal icing decorations. This charming recipe features ginger, cinnamon, and cloves in soft cookies that are cut into layered tree shapes and decorated with smooth royal icing for a delightful holiday treat.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Cookies
- 110 g unsalted butter, soft, at room temperature
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 250 g all-purpose flour + more to dust the surface for rolling
For the Royal Icing (Option 1)
- 1 egg white or 30 g pasteurized egg white
- 200 g icing sugar
- Water, as needed
For the Royal Icing (Option 2)
- 150 g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder
- Water, as needed
Instructions
- Prepare the Dough: Use a whisk to beat the softened butter, sugar, and salt together until creamy. Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated. Then add vanilla extract, ginger powder, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves and mix again to combine.
- Incorporate Dry Ingredients: Add the all-purpose flour and baking powder, mixing first with a spatula. When the spatula is no longer effective, knead the dough slightly with your hands until it forms a smooth ball.
- Chill the Dough: Cover the dough and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. If the dough has been in the fridge longer, allow it to come back to room temperature slightly before rolling to prevent cracking.
- Roll Out and Cut Cookies: Lightly flour the surface and roll the dough out to 2-3 mm thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes in sizes of approximately 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, and 4 cm from point to point. Cut extra smaller pieces for the tree tip and for eating.
- Transfer and Bake: Using a thin metal spatula, lift the cookies and place them onto a non-stick baking tray or a tray lined with baking paper or silpat. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for 12 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden.
- Cool Cookies: Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely before decorating to prevent melting the royal icing.
- Make Royal Icing Option 1: Place egg whites in a bowl and sift icing sugar over them. Beat until combined, then adjust the texture by adding a few drops of water or lemon juice if too thick, or more icing sugar if too thin. Test consistency by drawing on a surface to ensure the icing holds its shape but is easy to pipe.
- Make Royal Icing Option 2: Mix icing sugar with meringue powder and gradually add water until a thick paste forms. Adjust the consistency as described for Option 1, ensuring the icing neither spreads too much nor is too stiff to pipe.
- Prepare for Decorating: If not using immediately, cover the royal icing with two layers of wet paper towels touching the surface to prevent drying out. Reassess thickness before use and adjust if food coloring is added, as it thins the icing.
- Decorate Cookies: Fill a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle with royal icing. Pipe slow, consistent lines about 3mm above the cookie surface, letting the icing drop naturally. Create an outline on each cookie, leaving a 3mm edge, then add decorative dots once the outline has dried for about 5 minutes to prevent blending. Use a toothpick to smooth or correct lines.
- Assemble the Tree: Let the decorated cookies dry for 10 minutes. Then stack and adhere the cookies from largest to smallest layers using a small dollop of royal icing between each piece. Allow the assembled tree to dry for at least 30 minutes before handling or moving.
- Add Final Touch: For a snowy effect, dust the assembled tree lightly with icing sugar just before serving.
Notes
- If dough cracks while rolling, let it warm slightly to become more pliable.
- Use pasteurized egg whites in royal icing to ensure safety if serving to children or pregnant women.
- Rest royal icing-covered cookies on a flat surface to dry completely before assembly to prevent smudging.
- For vibrant royal icing colors, add gel food coloring sparingly as it can thin the icing.
- Substitute spices like cloves and cinnamon with pumpkin pie spice for a slight variation.
- Cookies keep well in an airtight container for up to one week, but royal icing decorations are best enjoyed fresh.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 assembled cookie tree
- Calories: 320 kcal
- Sugar: 25 g
- Sodium: 150 mg
- Fat: 14 g
- Saturated Fat: 8 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 42 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 55 mg
