Baking a 3D Christmas tree: recipes and tips for decorating the cookies

The magic of Christmas will soon shine in our homes and the smell of traditional delicacies that we like to prepare at this time of year will fill the air. The children in particular are enthusiastic about Christmas baking. Be creative and make a 3D Christmas tree out of cookies. These can be baked from either gingerbread or shortbread batter. Use these cute Christmas trees to add a special touch to your festive table. They are also a delicious dessert with coffee!

Baking a 3D Christmas tree: a perfect gift from the kitchen

Decorated with royal icing and sugar pearls, a 3D Christmas tree is also perfect as an original Christmas present for friends and family. You simply need suitable packaging to safely transport the edible gift. It doesn’t have to be laborious at all. A piece of cellophane and a nice bow – perfectly adequate.

Baking shortbread Christmas trees

Preparation time: 2:40 minutes

Baking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients for 4 Christmas trees

200 grams of unsalted butter, chilled, chopped

70 grams of powdered sugar

70 grams of rice flour

190 grams of flour

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

100 grams of white chocolate, chopped

Silver sugar pearls to decorate

Icing sugar for decorating

You still need star-shaped cookie cutters with the following diameters:

7.5cm / 7cm / 6cm / 5.5cm / 4.5cm / 2.5cm

How to prepare the dough:

1. Put the butter, sugar, flour and vanilla in the bowl of a dough mixer and knead briefly until a smooth dough is formed. Press down the leftover dough on the sides with a spatula. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead again lightly with your hands.

2. Divide the dough in half and shape them into slices. Wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes or until the batter has set.

3. Preheat the oven to 170 ° C / 150 ° C. Grease 4 large baking sheets. Line with baking paper.

4. Roll out 1 portion of dough between 2 layers of parchment paper to a thickness of 3 mm. Cut 8 stars out of the dough with the 7.5 cm cookie cutter. Now roll out the dough again and cut out another 8 stars, this time with the 7 cm cookie cutter. Spread the stars 2 cm apart on two of the prepared baking trays. Bake 1 baking sheet per baking time. After 10 minutes, take the cookies out of the oven, put them on a wire rack and let cool down completely.

5. Repeat the same with the rest of the dough. You need 8 x 6 cm stars, 8 x 5.5 cm stars, 8 x 4.5 cm stars and 8 x 2.5 cm stars from the dough. Place on prepared baking sheets, except for the smallest stars. Again bake each baking sheet for 10 minutes each. The smallest stars take about 5 minutes to bake.

6. Place the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and let it heat up in the microwave on the highest setting for 30 seconds. Then stir with a metal spoon for 1 minute or until smooth. Let stand for 5 minutes to let the chocolate cool down.

7. Put 1/3 of the chocolate in a plastic bag. Cut off 1 corner. Place small dots of chocolate on each star point and gently press the sugar pearls into place. Let the chocolate harden for about 5 minutes.

8. Arrange 4 of the large stars next to each other on a piece of baking paper. Spoon a little of the remaining chocolate into the center of each star (melt the chocolate again if necessary). Place another star of the same size on top so that the points are offset on top of each other. In this way, stack all the stars on top of each other (except for the smallest stars) to form 4 Christmas trees.

9. Put a small blob of chocolate on the top of the tree and stick 2 small stars in the chocolate. Finally, let the rest of the chocolate drizzle over the trees. Set aside for 20 minutes. Dust generously with powdered sugar before serving.

3D Christmas tree made from gingerbread cookies

Gingerbread dough is also perfect for building a 3D Christmas tree out of it. Here is the classic gingerbread cookie recipe:

Ingredients for 1 Christmas tree from 20 cookies

390 grams of all-purpose flour

100 grams of honey

200 grams of brown sugar

200 grams of unsalted butter, melted

1 egg

4 teaspoons of ground ginger

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

gingerbread dough 

Mix 2/3 of the flour with ginger, cinnamon, allspice, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Make a hole in the middle.

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer on medium setting for 2 minutes. Add the egg and honey. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir well until all of the flour is incorporated. Stir in the rest of the flour until the dough is no longer sticky.

Divide the dough into 4 portions. Shape into slices and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Then let the chilled dough rest for 5 minutes at room temperature before rolling it out. It’ll be easier to roll. The gingerbread dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Instead of white chocolate, you can use frosting and royal icing. The frosting is perfect for gluing the stars together, while royal icing is ideal for decorating. You only need two ingredients for the frosting: 1 egg white and 200 grams of powdered sugar. And here is the recipe for the egg white spray icing:

Royal icing recipe

Beat 3 egg whites with 1/4 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice in a large bowl using an electric hand mixer. Add 640 grams of sifted powdered sugar. Whip the mixture for 3 to 7 minutes until dense and thick but frothy. Stir in 2 to 4 tablespoons of cold water to thin the glaze. Pour into a piping bag with a very small opening to decorate chilled biscuits.

If you like to experiment, swap the star shape for that of a snowflake. As already mentioned, the biscuits have to be of different sizes because they are then placed on top of each other in ascending order. The smallest snowflake sits on top of the top. Decorate the cookies as you wish and create an unusual 3D Christmas tree.

If you don’t have cookie cutters, you can just use homemade paper stencils. Print out the selected templates in any size you want and turn them into stencils. Then place these on the dough and cut along the contours with a sharp knife. Try to make the cuts as clean as possible. This works best after you’ve chilled the rolled out dough. When the dough is soft, it tends to squeeze around the knife.