Sugar cut-out cookies take on a whole new life with these inventive cookies made with a simple and delicious vanilla sugar cookie dough.
Don’t want to spend hours outlining, flooding, and decorating cookies with royal icing to get a pretty decorated effect? You need my easy cutout cookies! It’s so simple to colour a portion of the dough with gel food colouring and then play jigsaw with a Christmas tree cutter.
These cookies are a great testament to what the mind can dream up when it’s not otherwise occupied. I had the idea for them (as well as some forthcoming cupcakes!) while at a boring just not my kind of music gig with Lee. I was thinking about new and exciting christmas baking ideas that are things I haven’t done before. In fairness, Lee won my heart during an indie/alternative (now admitted) phase, and then moved onto liking some much more shouty music, while I still like indie/alternative/folk and a bit of pop!
Simple vanilla sugar cookies are ideal for so many situations! They’re delicious with a cup of tea and hold their shape really well with lots of room for sprinkles and frosting. In the past I’ve played around with royal icing (lovely Bridget at Bake at 350 makes the most incredible iced cookies!) to decorate cookies, which looks stunning, but is quite time consuming. It’s right for a really special occasion, but not for everyday biscuits in my book.
For these Christmas Tree Cookies, half of the cookie dough is easily coloured forest green by adding about a third of a teaspoon of green gel food colouring (it’s the same stuff I use to make my Rainbow Cake!). I often get mine from eBay for a couple of pounds, or you can try your local cake decorating shop.You can wear clean rubber gloves if you’re worried about your hand getting a bit green, and just gently knead the colouring into the dough. It will go tie-dye at first, but keep kneading until the colour is completely even and the dough is a forest green colour.
To make these cookies even prettier, I also coat the edges with white chocolate and then decorate with pretty Christmas sprinkles.
I got my small Christmas tree cookie cutters from eBay – they were just £1 for three! To ensure that the cookies don’t stick to the cutter, dip the cutter into the flour between each cookie. Assembling these cookies is so easy – simply cut large circular cookies out of the vanilla dough, and then use your Christmas tree cutter to cut a christmas tree shaped hole in the centre, into which you’ll pop a Christmas tree cut out of the green coloured dough. It’s actually incredibly easy – they just slot into each other, and once they bake, since the cookies expand, they’ll be completely one cookie!
The thing I love most about these cookies is that the fun cut out idea saves you from doing any fancy and time consuming cookie decorating royal icing (like the cookies below) which are from my Pinterest board. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the way they look, but these cookies are so much easier and more fun to make.
Image via
Your Christmas tree cookies would be absolutely gorgeous plain, but I made mine even more festive with a few sprinkles and some edible glitter.
- 250g / 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 250g / 1 cup plus one heaped tablespoon caster or golden caster sugar
- 2 large free range eggs
- 500g / 4 cups sifted plain flour
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- Tree green gel food colouring, such as Sugarflair Christmas Green or Holly Green
- 50g white chocolate / just under a third of a cup
- Sprinkles
- First, make the biscuit dough. Combine your butter, which needs to be incredibly soft, with the sugar in a large bowl. Beat in the two eggs along with the vanilla bean paste, and then sift in the flour and mix with a large spatula - the dough will be quite stiff, but keep going until its all incorporated. Divide the dough into two equal portions, and then pop half onto some clingfilm and wrap it up tightly and put it into the fridge.
- Next, add about a third of a teaspoon of gel food colouring to the remaining dough, and knead until it's completely incorporated. It will go streaky at first, but carry on and add more gel if necessary if the dough isn't green enough. If its sticky, dust it with a little extra flour. Once it's a nice Christmas green, pop it onto some clingfilm too and then wrap it up and let it rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Next, prepare three large cookie sheets with non stick baking mat or parchment paper, and preheat your oven to 160c/gas mark 4/350F.
- Roll out your two doughs on a liberally floured work surface. Use a large circular cutter to cut out circles that will easily accommodate the size of Christmas tree cutter you're using, and transfer these to your cookie sheets. Next, cut out a christmas tree shape in the centre of each circle. Perform the same step with the green dough, and use a palette knife or spatula to pick up and transfer the green trees into the vanilla dough and vice versa.
- Bake for 10-14 minutes, and keep a close eye on them and remove from the oven or swap to a lower shelf if they're starting to get browned (generally if they are starting to get browned, they will be done). Let cool completely on a cooling rack.
- If you'd like to decorate with sprinkles, melt your white chocolate in the microwave (I use a mug for such a small amount, and microwave on 15 second intervals and stir well). Use a teaspoon to drizzle white chocolate over the biscuits, or to smear onto the outside of the cookies, and then add on sprinkles.
I find that the easiest way to bake cookies is to line your baking trays with these non-stick baking liners, which I got from Lakeland. They were £10 and I cut the sheet to size, which was enough for my three biggest baking sheets. They make it SO easy to get cookies off the tray, and they also mean that your tray won’t be dirty so you (probably) won’t have to wash it! I also use them when I’m making decorations from melted chocolate or candy melts – again they peel off so easily when they’re cooled.
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x Kerry
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PS I think that I invented this idea (maybe!). I’ve not seen anything else like it despite googling… let me know if you have!
What a great idea and could do other things too with different colors and still have the big cookie. We make my Grandmothers Big Sugar cookies and they are always big and don’t last long, Thank you Kerry and have a Merry Christmas,
Thank you so much Alice, same to you!
Hoping to make these for the first time in a few days. Don’t have vanilla paste – are you able to recommend a suitable amount of vanilla (or almond) extract? Thank you so much.
Hi Heather – just substitute for the same amount of whatever other extract you want to use 🙂
Thank you!
Hi keRry, planning on making theSe tomorrow. Do the two colours stick together once baking like do they merge or do they stay? Because onviously i wouldnt the colours to mix? Xx
Hi Grace! They stick together because the cookies expand slightly when baked, but they don’t mix in any way. Have you looked at the pictures?
How long do they keep for? If you hAng them on the christmas tree dOnt they go soggy?
Hi Debbie, I don’t hang these on a tree – I just eat them!
Hi Kerry, I made these last year and they turned out amazing! Thank you for another great recipe that I’ve added to my favourites. I’m planning on making them again tomorrow but I haven’t got any vanilla flavouring, do you think an almond flavour could work well? I’ve only got ground almonds at the moment so would I want to leave out some of the flour? Thanks so much, sinead
P.s hope you have an amazing Christmas x
Hi Sinead! Thank you so much for your very kind comment – almond essence and ground almonds would be absolutely lovely. You could leave out maybe a third or half of the flour and replace it with the almonds. Happy Christmas to you too! xx
What a fab idea – they look awesome! It’d be really cool to have a mix of shapes and colours too 🙂
Natalie Tamara recently posted…Fudgy Kidney Bean Brownies | Vegan
That’s an awesome idea!
These look fantastic! It’s such a simple idea but looks really effective – definitely something I want to try.
Corina recently posted…Garlic Chicken Roasted in a Bag
These are so fab, my kids would love them. A great activity in the run up to Christmas!
Ciara (My Fussy Eater) recently posted…Bacon, Cheese & Chive Egg Muffins
My kiddoes would love to make these Kerry.
Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry recently posted…Spiced Orange Shortbread
I LOVE these Kerry – they sparkle and look amazing, such a FAB entry for December’s tea time treats! THANKS for linking up, Karen xxx
Karen recently posted…Lussekatter – St Lucia Saffron and Cardamom Sweet Buns for St Lucy’s Day
Thanks so much Karen! So pleased you like them! 🙂
These are the most adorable Christmas cookies!
Laura @ laura’s Culinary Adventures recently posted…Ham and Cranberry Sauce Quesadilla
Thanks so much Laura! I really think they are!
These look great, I love the colours and the idea is so effective. My kids would love to do something like this for some fun Christmas baking!
Lucy @ BakingQueen74 recently posted…Cranberry Cheesecake Pies
Thanks Lucy! I think it would be awesome with other things too like yellow stars, or blue snowflakes!