Christmas Cookie Tree

Christmas is the time for having the best days of year end! It calls for celebration and get together with near and dear ones. And as bakers, we get the opportunity to bake and serve some classic and some different treats.

For this Christmas, let’s bake something cute and unique. How about a cookie that is inspired by a Christmas tree?!!

I bring to you Christmas Cookie Tree that has elements like almond and ginger cookies stacked with dark chocolate ganache and decorated with assorted nuts and sprinkles to resemble a Christmas tree.

Eggless Christmas Cookie Tree Video Tutorial

Taste and texture of the cake

The cookie made is crispy and has almond flour flavored with ginger. To sandwich the cookies and stack, dark chocolate ganache is used which is also flavored with ginger and Cinnamon-a perfect winter dessert.

Key ingredients used for the recipe and their relevance

Almond flour-the use of almond flour not only gives the cookie unique flavor but also a different texture from a regular cookie.

Corn flour-corn flour helps reduce gluten level in the cookie dough, which in turn makes cookie crispy and less chewy.

Fresh ginger and ginger powder – just like gingerbread cookies, these cookies also have dominant flavor of ginger. This is given by using freshly grated ginger as well as ginger powder.

Icing sugar – to give the cookie snappy texture, icing sugar is used. It helps make the cookie have compact texture.

Cinnamon powder – the ganache is given special flavor by adding cinnamon powder.

Let’s make this special Christmas recipe

All Ingredient List for Making Christmas Cookie Tree

Ingredients for Cookies

Ingredients for Cookies Quantity
All-purpose flour
90 g
Corn flour
26 g
Almond flour
14 g
Icing Sugar
45 g
Salted Butter (cold)
47 g
Grated Ginger
1/4 tsp
Ginger Powder
1/2 tsp
Salt
1/4 tsp

Ingredients for chocolate ganache

Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache Quantity
Dark Couverture Chocolate (46.5%)
50 g
Fresh Cream
25 g
Ginger Powder
1/8 tsp
Cinnamon Powder
A Pinch

Ingredients For Top Garnish:

Ingredients for Garnish Quantity
Tutty Fruity
10 g
White and Gold Pearls
As required
Melted Dark compound chocolate (for chocolate star)
30 g
Nueschee
As required
Gold Dust
As required

All equipment needed for the recipe

  • Measuring cups and spoons
  • Digital kitchen weighing scale
  • Bowls and spoons
  • Spatula
  • Sieve 
  • Round cookie cutters (2.7 cm, 4 cm, 5.6 cm, 6.3 cm, 7 cm, 7.8 cm, 8.5 cm, 9 cm)
  • Paint brush
  • OHP Sheet
  • Piping Bag
  • Silicon mat
  • Oven/OTG
  • Microwave 

Steps to prepare christmas cookie tree

Method For Cookies

  1. Preheat the oven at 170C (otg mode: upper rod+lower rod+ fan). Line a baking tray with silicon mat.
  2. In a bowl, take almond flour and icing sugar. Now rub butter into this using your fingertips. Rub until you get a sand like texture.
  3. In a different bowl, sift flour, salt, ginger powder and corn flour. Add grated ginger to it. Now mix it all and add this mixture to the butter-sugar mixture made earlier.
  4. Add milk to form a dough.
  5. Now roll the cookie dough between two sheet of butter paper with 0.5cm of thickness. Freeze the rolled dough for 15 minutes.
  6. Cut round hollow discs using cutters of various sizes. 
  7. Place them on lined baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes (otg mode: upper rod+lower rod+ fan) or until edges turn golden brown.

Method For Ganache

  1. Melt chocolate and warm the cream.
  2. Now mix the cream and chocolate and stir until they combine well. Add ginger powder and Cinnamon powder. Mix again.
  3. Transfer the ganache into a piping bag.

Method For Chocolate Star

  1. Place OHP sheet on work surface.
  2. Place printed star shape below the OHP sheet.
  3. Now trace the star shape using melted dark compound chocolate and let it set.
  4. Brush gold dust on it once it is set.

ASSEMBLY

  1. Take the cookies for stacking once they cool down.
  2. Place the biggest size cookie on the bottom and pipe ganache over it. Place another cookie of same size and again pipe ganache
  3. Now place one size smaller cookie this time. Pipe ganache and again place cookie of same size.
  4. Continue to stack cookies until you get a tree like shape.
  5. To garnish the cookie tree, put cold glaze dots all around the tree and place tutty fruity, gold and white pearls on it.
  6. Lastly, place the golden chocolate star on top and dust the tree with nueschee.

Chef's Tip And Key Points

  1. While rubbing the butter into sugar-flour, make sure to use only fingertips and not palms. Using palm can melt the butter.
  2. Use cold butter to get crispy cookies.
  3. Do not skip freezing the rolled dough. Frozen dough will help in getting sharp cut round discs.
  4. Do not over bake the cookies as then they would get too brown and hard.
  5. You can use any dry fruit or nut of your choice to decorate the tree.
  6. If nueschee is unavailable, use icing sugar for snow effect.