This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see our privacy policy.
These one-bowl, no-mixer Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies are delicious and the pretty decorating technique is super simple!
Are you ready for one more fun Christmas cookie idea? I was in the middle of rolling and cutting out my Easy Decorated Christmas Cookies when the inspiration for these Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies came flitting through my brain. I was so excited that, right away, I had to pull out a Christmas tree cookie cutter and some green food coloring to give the idea a try. When I showed my swirly little trees to Scott, he loved them and thought each one was a work of art. I thought you might enjoy making (and giving) these easy cookies too!
Buttery, delicious and clean crisp edges - a win, win, win!
I searched for years for the perfect shortbread recipe. I wanted one that was not only buttery and melt-in-your-mouth delicious, but also one that would keep nice crisp edges when baked. I discarded one recipe after another until I discovered this one. Just the right proportion of butter, sugar and flour, as well as a small amount of cornstarch, are a few of the secrets to this delicious shortbread dough that keeps its shape in the oven.
On top of tasting fantastic and exhibiting good behavior in the oven, this dough can be made in one bowl with no mixer. I dearly love my KitchenAid mixer but when I'm in a hurry, (almost always) it's really nice to pull out just one bowl and a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula. Within minutes, my dough is mixed up and ready to roll!
A fun and easy decorating technique
The technique for these Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies is nothing new here at The Café. I'm not much of a fancy cake/cookie decorator. So when I discovered this easy method of making cookies look like they came from a fine bake shop, I was thrilled. I call it my Dip, Drip and Flip technique and I've used it for several fun seasonal cookies, including these Glazed Shortbread Cutout Cookies, these Red, White and Blue Glazed Shortbread Cookies as well as my Easy Thanksgiving Shortbread Cookies. It's a foolproof way to decorate beautiful cookies!
How does it work? I thought you might want to see the technique in action, so I had Scott take a few shots while I iced these pretty Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies. Check it out!
You can see it's pretty simple. Mix up a two-ingredient glaze then add your flavoring of choice. (I love to use peppermint extract at Christmas time, but lemon, almond, coconut and orange extracts are also delicious.) Next step is swirling a bit of green gel food coloring into the white glaze. Hold one of the Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies over the glaze and dip the top side to coat. Pull straight up and let the icing drip, then flip the cookie over and voila! Bakeshop quality that even a child can have success with!
I thought I'd also share a video of this Dip, Drip and Flip decorating technique.
It's from my Red, White and Blue Glazed Shortbread Cookies but the technique is the same.
So pull out a bowl - you have flour, butter, powdered sugar, milk (or half and half) and vanilla, right? That's all you need, other than the green food coloring. But one more thing and this is essential! Find your favorite version of "O Tannenbaum" and be sure to have it playing while you mix, roll, cut out and bake. I had this wonderful version by the three tenors BLARING. I also love this rendition by Andrea Bocelli. It will put you in the proper spirit to make these Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies!
Café Tips for making these Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies
- Because there’s no mixer used, the butter needs to be very soft when mixing up these Christmas Shortbread Cookies. That can be difficult at this time of year, even if you let the butter sit out for hours. A short stint in the microwave on power level 10 (10%) works like magic to soften butter. You’ll need to experiment a bit with your microwave though, as they’re all different. Start with 20 or 30-second increments at power level 10 until you learn how long your microwave will take to get the butter nice and soft, but not melted.
- Another technique I often use to soften butter is to put it in the oven or microwave overnight with the light on. To keep the light on in the microwave I put a folded paper towel in the door. It works like a charm!
- I used Wilton's Leaf Green and Kelly Green gel food colorings for my Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies.
- Don’t roll these cookies too thin, otherwise, they will be difficult to dip into the glaze when decorating. I roll mine to a ⅜-inch thickness and use an adjustable rolling pin. How do you roll them to the desired thickness? This reasonably priced rolling pin is a super-easy way to achieve the same perfect thickness for all your cookies. It has 1/16, ⅙, ¼, and ⅜-inch removable discs, making it easy to flatten your dough to a uniform thickness. Have a baker on your shopping list? This would make a lovely gift that can be used year-round. You might even be the lucky recipient of some perfect, even Easy Decorated Christmas Cookies!
- I used peppermint extract in my glaze and buttercream. Feel free to use other flavorings. Almond, vanilla, orange, lemon and coconut extracts are also delicious.
- Flavor extracts can vary in intensity. It’s better to start with a small amount in the icing, then take a little taste. You can always add more, but you can’t remove it!
- The recipe calls for a one hour (or longer) chill for the cutout cookies. If I’m in a big hurry, I just pop them into the freezer for 10-15 minutes (don’t tell anyone I cheat!).
- A few tips on rolling and cutting out cookies:
- Keep your work surface and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour.
- I also like to rub the cutting edge of my cookie cutter in a little flour in between each cookie.
- Press fairly firmly when cutting out the cookies, but don’t twist the cookie cutter as the shape will get distorted.
- If you don’t have room in your refrigerator to chill the cookies on two sheet pans, just transfer all of them to one pan after cutting. Then later, once they’re chilled, you can divide them between the two pans for baking.
- When re-rolling the scraps, incorporate as little of the flour on the work surface as possible.
- Occasionally, some of the cookies will be slightly puffed on the top when removed from the oven. You can give them a nice flat top by pushing on the top gently with a metal spatula.
- Sometimes the glaze for these cookies will have lots of bubbles. These bubbles will cause imperfections in the surface of the glazed cookies. Simply stir the glaze very slowly to get rid of the bubbles.
- If you let the glazed cookies drip into the same bowl over and over the glaze will get murky before you're finished icing all the cookies. Because of this, I like to let the glaze drip into a separate bowl.
- I used this set of Christmas tree cutters and this one.
- 8 ounces very soft butter
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 4-5 tablespoons half and half (or milk)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
- 2 colors of green gel paste food coloring
-
Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
-
Place soft butter in a medium-size mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula until nice and smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix together by hand for about 30 seconds until well blended.
-
Add the flour and cornstarch. Stir until dry ingredients are incorporated. The dough will be a little shaggy. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gather into a ball.
-
Knead 5-6 times until fairly smooth and all the small pieces are worked in. Form into a ball again and flatten with your hand to form a flat disk. Turn the disk to coat both sides with flour.
-
Roll out the dough to an approximate ⅜-inch thickness (see Café Tips above in the post). Keep work surface, dough and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour. Cut out Christmas trees (in one or more sizes) and transfer to prepared pans with a thin, metal spatula. Re-roll scraps as many times as needed to use up the dough.
-
Place cutouts in the refrigerator for at least one hour or up to 24 hours. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350˚F. Remove 1 pan of cutouts from the refrigerator and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden at the edges. Rotate pans halfway through for even browning. Repeat with the second pan of cutouts.
-
Cool completely before icing.
-
Combine powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons half and half (or milk), vanilla and peppermint extract in a medium-size bowl. Mix until smooth. The glaze should be fairly thick, but pourable. Add a little more half and half if too thick. Taste the glaze and add more extract, if a more intense flavor is desired.
-
Transfer the glaze to a small shallow bowl (a little bigger than your cookies). With a toothpick, swirl a small amount of two green gel food colorings through the icing in the bowl. Don’t swirl too much or the icing will become a solid color. Use a light hand with the gel food coloring. A little goes a long way!
-
To glaze the cookies, hold onto the edge of a cookie and dip the top surface into the glaze, being sure all of the surface touches the glaze. Pull cookie straight up and out of the glaze. Allow excess glaze to drip into another bowl or plate (this will keep the glaze from getting murky) for about 30 seconds. When glaze stops dripping, quickly flip the cookie to the right side up and give it a gentle jiggle to allow the glaze to flow evenly over the surface. Repeat with remaining cookies.
-
Place cookies on a cooling rack and allow glaze to dry completely.
Makes 10-20 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutters. See Café Tips above in post for more detailed instructions and tips. I got my Christmas tree cookie cutters from Amazon.
Heather M Riley says
Hello,
I love these... your dip, drip and flip technique looks amazing and simple. When I have tried it in the past the icing just over flows on the cookie after I let it sit. Any tips on that?
Also how long do you typically let icing dry for?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Heather, you can try making the icing a tiny bit thicker. The other trick is to really let it drip before you flip them over so that you don't have too much excess icing. If you want to package them I would let the icing dry for several hours so they can harden.
Chris Scheuer says
Also, check out the video on this post- https://thecafesucrefarine.com/dip-drip-and-flip-shortbread-valentine-cookies/?swcfpc=1
Janet Swenson says
I'm sorry. We froze them for four weeks.
Nita says
Omg this is the best easy cookie recipe. We don’t stretch out the dough but just roll into balls and bake. They come out like Italian wedding cookies and with the icing are so good. Even better the next day as the icing softens the cookies. I have gotten so so many compliments on these cookies!
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks for sharing your results, Nita!
Bernice P says
Hi, These cookies sound delicious. Do you use salted or unsalted butter? Do you use room temp butter or do you let it get even softer?
Thank you.
Nita says
Hey! I use salted and I let the butter soften on the counter for a few hours. If It comes right out of the fridge I just microwave for a few seconds.
Janet Swenson says
I am excited to try these because I am not good at decorating, and they are beautiful and look fairly easy. My niece and I do a lot of baking to sell at Christmas. This year we made 3500+ cookies. We want to make these next year, but I am worried about freezing and storing 300+ of these cookies. I know I can freeze the cookies before decorating, but can we glaze them also, let them dry, and then freeze them to be decorated later. I would put paper in between, but we'd need to stack them several high and probably freeze them for a month. Will this work? Any better advice? Thank you so much.
Chris Scheuer says
3500 cookies! Wow! That's amazing!
Regarding your question, I have frozen these for a week with good results. I would think it would work for longer but I think I would try a batch now (you could do a Valentine shape to be more seasonal), freeze them and then remove them in a month and see how they do.
Janet Swenson says
Chris, we experimented and froze these cookies, both with and without glaze. Both were excellent. We have had a ton of compliments from the Valentine cookies. Thank you for an awesome recipe.
Janet Swenson says
I'm sorry. We froze them for four-five weeks.
Kelly says
Such great recipe and love the frosting! But your page is so spammy and disruptive with all the popups. I almost clicked off numerous times.
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks for sharing your results, Kelly. So happy you enjoyed these cookies!
I'm sorry the page is a problem for you. The ads are the way we pay the expenses of running a website as well as earning a living. It's how we can offer our recipes to others for free.
Bonnie says
This is the first time in 35 years of TRYING to bake cutout Christmas cookies that I’ve been truly happy with the results on two counts- these cookies taste delicious. Every other rolled sugar cookie I’ve tried tastes like cardboard by the time I’ve used enough flour to keep them from sticking to the rolling pin. The other aspect- this glazing process was fun and nearly foolproof. They look beautiful and my family was impressed. Mine don’t look quite as swirly as Chris’ but I’m learning not to use too much gel paste as you recommended. Thank you for all the tips. I ordered the rolling pin and it’s so much easier to get the right thickness. That company also sells a silicone mat that makes the rolling process a snap.
Chris Scheuer says
Thank you, Bonnie! I know what you mean, I'm always frustrated with pretty cookies that are tasteless. I'm so happy you have enjoyed this recipe. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your review!
Carolyn says
Can you make the cookie/shortbread dough and refrigerate for a day before all the needing, cutting then freezing them before baking?
Chris Scheuer says
You can, just let the dough warm up a bit though before rolling. ENJOY!
Chris says
Roll the dough between parchment paper in batches, then refrigerate. Less clean up and easier than rolling cold dough.
SusanD says
Wow! I consider myself a competent baker, but decorating had never been my forte. That is why I was delighted with this recipe. Not only were the cookies delicious, but they looked like they had been professionally decorated. I was so pleased with the results, that I made another batch with the pilped Christmas trees, and even got a bit creative with a star cutter and two shades of blue food colouring. These beautiful cookies will be adorning my holiday baking platter every year. Thank you!
Chris Scheuer says
I think we're two peas in a pod when it comes to decorating, Susan. So happy you've enjoyed this technique!
Maggie says
Hi,
Just wondering if the dough, before cooking, freezes well? Would like to get the mixing up out of the way but don’t want to cook them too soon as I have two weeks until Christmas 😬
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Maggie, I haven't tried freezing the dough in a ball but I have rolled out and cut the cookies and have frozen them on a sheet pan. I baked them frozen and just gave them a few extra minutes. That worked well!
Mollybea says
Would love to know if you can double the recipe to come out the same?
MaureenT says
Taking out of the freezer sometimes a cookie/frosting get damp -
warm air:cold cookie. How to avoid this? If it fors get damp will the color run?
I wondered if there isa way to add a metallic ‘color’ to these cookies without painting or topical treatments.
I will be making these this week. Triple batch to use as gifts. How would you pack these to ship? Only 1-2 days shipping time.
Thank you. Glad I found your site.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Maureen,
You can freeze these cookies. I haven't had trouble with the color running. I just let them sit sout eparately until they're thawed.
I haven't experimented with metallic color.
For shipping, I would make sure to let them sit out for a day to harden then pack them between layers of parchment paper.
Brianna Sensenig says
is it easy to transport the icing? like if i would make it beforehand and then decorate the cookies elsewhere?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Brianna, you can make the icing ahead and transport it. Just whisk it together really well before using. And I would take a little extra half and half along as you may need to thin it out a little bit after transporting it. Just a few drops probably.
Julie Stephenson says
What do you use for the green icing to make the tree?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Julie, I use two different shades of green gel food coloring. You can also use liquid food coloring.
Bernadette Dalenberg says
HI Chris. These cookies are amazing. I made them last Christmas and not only were they beautiful, but they are great tasting cookie that everyone loved. I just finished making the recipe for by daughter's 21st birthday and using a "21" cookie cutter. For the glaze I swirled bright pink gel and orange gel food coloring and the effect is so pretty. My question is, I have a another cookie cutter shape that I'm going to be using and I was wondering if I used this glaze recipe and then wrote on the cookie with a decorating tip after the glaze was fully hardened (using a royal icing), will that work?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Bernadette, I love how you have adapted this recipe and technique!
To answer your question, I think that should work fine as long as the glaze is nice and hardened!
Mary says
Hi!
These sound delicious! Could you please tell me if the icing will set hard enough for me to be able to stack the cookies on top of each other in order to transport them?
Thank you 😊
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Mary, the icing does harden if you let the cookies set out overnight. I have often stacked them on a platter and it works well. I also stack them in storage containers with parchment paper in between with good results. I don't think I would stack them tightly for a long period of time though, like if you were intending to send them in the mail and they would be stacked up for days on end.
Christa says
I love this recipe! The cookies turned out great, and the glaze added the right amount of sweetness to the cookie and was the easiest way to ice a cookie! (I just used it without the peppermint because I'm not the biggest fan of it!) I will definitely be using this again for other holidays as well!
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks, Christa! I'm so happy you enjoyed them. Thanks for sharing your results!
Terry says
I will never “frost” another cookie again, these turned out beautiful and so much quicker than regular frosting. Thanks
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks, Terry! I love this technique too!
Ashley says
Do you have to put the peppermint on them?
Chris Scheuer says
Nope! You can use any kind of extract you like, vanilla, orange, almond...
Angie says
Has anyone had to add more butter to get the cookies to form? I had to add more. The cookies were still amazing though.
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Angie, I use just what's called for in the recipe. You do have to make sure your butter is nice and soft though.
Sushma Travas says
Thanks so much for the cookie recipe and the lovely technique of glazing them will be trying it this week I am sure they will be great
Chris Scheuer says
Hope you enjoy them Sushma!
Debbie Ogan says
i just made these and they turned out beautifully! They are all decorated and drying. How long should i let the glaze dry before putting them in a storage container?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Debbie, I like to let them dry for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Fatima says
The cookies tuned out great!! Wanted to know if they can be frozen?
Chris Scheuer says
Hi Fatima, yes, they can definitely be frozen although they will keep well for at least a week in an airtight container.
Fatima says
Great recipe, they turned out really well. I was wondering can they be frozen?
Kathy says
These cookies turned out very nice. I did have to add a bit more flour to get the dough to come together, but believe I let the butter get too soft. Adding that extra spoonful or two of flour didn’t have any effect on the taste or texture though, which is wonderful! I also used your technique to glaze the cookies & love how they look.
Trying out your banana pound cake for a friend’s birthday this week—anxious to see how it turns out.
Chris Scheuer says
Thanks so much for sharing your results, Kathy. I'm so happy you have enjoyed the cookies!