These Christmas tree cookies have a spiced sugar cookie base and are topped with a fluffy ginger cream cheese frosting. They're easy to decorate but look phenomenal on a cookie tray!
As seen on my appearance in The Food Network Christmas Cookie Challenge!
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Creating This Recipe for Christmas Tree Cookies
There is nothing better than warming up with these flavorful cookies. Except, serving them to Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman!) on The Food Network!
That's right, I served a variation of this recipe for Christmas tree cookies to The Pioneer Woman herself when I competed on a TV show challenge for The Food Network!
I was asked to join the competition a few years ago (reruns still run every year!!). There were three rounds of interviews and I even had to cook for the producers before I was brought onto the show as a contestant.
I was one of five contestants and we didn't know what our challenges would be, nor did we know who the judges would be until we walked onto the set. Turns out one of the judges was my friend Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman! (Read more here).
Deciding Which Cookie to Make for the Show
I love decorating sugar cookies for Christmas. I typically make thick, fluffy sugar cookies, using sour cream to get the loftiness. They are delicious sugar cookies for cutouts.
I know my sour cream sugar cookies taste amazing, but most people on competition shows make crispy cookies. However, I knew I wanted to bring these Lofthouse-style cookies to the show. But I needed to make them REALLY TASTY.
I knew this would be a delicious cookie for the judges to eat in this competition, and I wanted to spruce it up a bit. Turns out The Pioneer Woman LOVED the taste of these cookies.
Tip: I used piping tips to pipe different colors of frosting onto Christmas tree cookies. Using start tips is easy and you can experiment. See more info on the specifics in the post below!
Special Ingredients in This Recipe
The Food Network competition called for using an ingredient often found in fruitcakes. There was a long list including dried fruits and nuts. I quickly chose sliced almonds.
I knew they would be tasty in cookies, and I hoped they would break up enough to cut with a cookie cutter when mixed into the dough. They did!
I added the sliced almonds to the cookies and both fresh and ground ginger to the frosting and cookie dough. It really helped the ginger flavor shine, and the crunch from the almonds takes this cookie to the next level.
Besides the special ingredients I just shared, this is a fairly classic sour cream sugar cookie recipe. For decorating, I made my go-to cream cheese frosting for sugar cookies.
How to Make Christmas Tree Cookies
Making the Christmas tree sugar cookies and Christmas cookie frosting is incredibly easy, and it's a fun recipe to make with family and friends!
- Whisk together the flour, salt, ground ginger and baking powder; set aside.
- In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in grated ginger.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla extract and sour cream.
- To the wet ingredients, slowly add the flour mixture, followed by toasted almonds.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Roll the dough to ⅜ of an inch thickness. Using 3-to-4-inch tree cookie cutters, cut shapes.
- Bake cookies until done, then decorate as desired.
Other Frosting Options
I usually pair Fluffy Vanilla Frosting with my thick and fluffy sugar cookies.
However, I was adding almonds and ginger to these Christmas tree sugar cookies, so I wanted an indulgent frosting — spiced cream cheese frosting, here I come!
In addition to using this cream cheese frosting for the sugar cookies, you could also try one of my other frosting options:
All of these homemade frosting recipes give cookies different personalities and flavor profiles. Depending on how you want to decorate your Christmas sugar cookies, you can choose different icings and frostings.
Christmas Tree Cookie Decorating Ideas
The best frosted sugar cookie recipe in the world needs gorgeous decorating! I colored my cream cheese frosting different shades of green.
It was really fun to tap into my inner artist and mix different shades of frosting. I made the same palette here as I did in the competition.
A play on blue spruce colors. Greens with hints of blue make these trees look festive, wintery, and still gorgeous and appetizing. Just use gel paste food coloring to tint the frosting.
Piping Techniques for Decorating Sugar Cookies
I played around with different piping tips for these almond ginger cookies. Thanks to my friends Colette and Ayelet for decorating with me! It was so fun to get creative.
- We used tips like star numbers #16, #19, #20, and #35.
- Other fun tips were the ribbon tip #47, also known as the basket weave tip.
- You can also try leaf and petal tips like numbers #69, #79, #102 , #103, #199 and #352.
We had such a great variety of Christmas trees — you know that no two trees are ever alike! Two of my favorite tips to use were #35 closed star tip and #352 leaf tip, both gave a really artistic look to the cookies.
Any tip you want to use will work perfectly for these Christmas tree cookies. Don't worry too much about your piping skills, you can always cover up mistakes by hiding them under sprinkles!
Using Sprinkles to Decorate Sugar Cookies
Speaking of sprinkles, I used all kinds, plus sugars and dragees. Don't you love those metallic dragees they have in blues and greens?
I used sanding sugar and non-parielles, little candy balls, and chocolate candies with colored coating. No one ever hates a little glitz and glam on their cookies!
Tips for Making Christmas Tree Cookies
- Don't forget to tap into your inner child when decorating these almond ginger cookies. Have fun by using multicolored frosting and a variety of sprinkles and dragees!
- Those crunchy almonds add great texture to these cookies, and get softer as the cookies sit for a day or two. They don't mess up the cookie cutter shapes either. Feel free to leave them out if you want.
- For the TV show, I used all the different shapes of holiday cutters. Here I recreated it with my collection of Christmas tree cookie cutters. I love the different shapes and sizes. Find your own tree cutters here.
More Easy Christmas Cookie Decorating Ideas:
I have lots of easy Christmas cookie recipes on my blog already, but here are some of my favorites:
- Santa's Face Sugar Cookies
- Peanut Butter Rudolph Reindeer Cookies
- Chocolate Snowman Cookies
- Honey Cinnamon Cut Out Cookies
📖 Recipe
Almond Ginger Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Almond Ginger Cookies
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- ⅔ cup sliced almonds (toasted)
Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 ½ teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 5 cups confectioners' sugar
- Gel paste food coloring
- Sanding and Crystal sugar
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, salt, ground ginger and baking powder; set aside.
- In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in grated ginger, continue to mix for 30 seconds.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time, until just combined. Continue to add vanilla extract and sour cream. Slowly add the flour mixture, followed by toasted almonds, scraping the sides and bottom of bowl until dough is formed. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Heat oven to 400ºF and line baking sheets with parchment. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to ⅜ of an inch thickness. Using 3-to-4-inch cookie cutters, cut shapes. Transfer to baking sheets and bake until cookies are just done, 8 to 10 min. Cool on pans. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling scraps once.
- While cookies are cooling, in an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add grated ginger and pinch of salt, until just combined. Slowly add confectioners' sugar, scraping the sides of the bowl. Continue to mix until fluffy.
- Divide frosting and tint with gel food coloring to desired colors. Fill pastry bags fitted with tips and decorate cookies as desired. Use sprinkles and sugars to decorate. Can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Makes about 3 dozen 3-inch cookies
- Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting makes about 4 cups of frosting
Nutrition
Recipes for Christmas
Tara Teaspoon
I’ve been in food publishing for over 25 years, creating recipes & food-styling for magazines, books, television, food brands, & advertising. With two cookbooks under my belt and thousands of my recipes at your fingertips, I hope you'll be inspired to spend more time in the kitchen!
Recipe and images Tara Teaspoon
Linda Stitt says
If you put these on a cookie tray does the icing get destroyed because its so soft? I am definitely interested in making these beautiful cookies
Tara Teaspoon says
Hi Linda,
The frosting is soft and stays soft. So, no you wouldn’t want to layer them on a serving platter. When I serve them I share them in a single layer on several platters. I sometimes overlap just a little corner of each. I feel you wouldn’t want to stack them so everyone can see the beautiful designs! Tara