Oh, how I love the smell of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg filling my kitchen with their spicy scents. Not only do these spices smell amazing they also make baked goods taste heavenly, as all bakes goods should. That is why I use all these spices in my favorite Spiced Christmas Tree Cookies.
These cookies are very simple to make, they taste great and are super cute. They just make you want to sing carols.
Spiced Christmas Cookies
Nothing says Christmas like decorated cutout cookies
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The Tradition of Cookie Baking for Christmas
- Cookie baking is a tradition in my home at Christmas time and these sugar cookies filled with warming spices get baked every year. They are both deliciously sweet and spicy and perfect for your holiday table, cookie exchange or gift-giving.
- Did you know the ritual of baking cookies for Christmas started in Medieval Europe?
- Cookie cutters started to appear in the 1400s in Italy and soon became popular with cookie makers in England and soon the German and Dutch in America.
- Gingerbread cookies are the most popular cookies at Christmas time.
- The beloved tradition of leaving cookies for Santa started during the Great Depression in the 1930s to show gratitude to others and the importance of giving.
The ingredients to make easy spice cookies
- Butter – unsalted and softened
- Brown sugar – for this recipe I use light brown sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla – for flavor
- Flour – all-purpose
- Spices – Ginger, Cinnamon, Cloves and Nutmeg
- Salt
- For the icing – powdered sugar, corn syrup, milk, and food coloring
There are many recipes for spice cookies that use molasses but these cookies rely on just three spices that give a light spicy flavor to the cookies.
How to make Spiced Christmas Tree Cookies
The recipe for these spice cookies is simple and the dough mixes quickly.
Simply just add butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix together and then add flour and all those glorious spices.
I happen to own a lot of cookie cutters and most of them are for Christmas cookies, but I find I use this Christmas tree cutter the most. I love the size and shape of the trees. If you don’t happen to have a tree cookie cutter, other cutters will be just as fun. You can even look around your kitchen for some fun shapes to cut out the dough, believe it or not, a cup works great.
For those of you wanting a Christmas tree cookie cutter, this Ann Clark cookie cutter is the perfect size and shape.
This is the easiest dough to work with. It is not sticky, rolls out smooth, cuts clean and is so easy to transfer to your cookie sheet. This is the best dough to work with.
Decorating cookies is fun but over the years I have gotten away from the heavily iced cookies I used to do in the past. I have quite the fondness for these cute Christmas tree cookies because they have such a simple design with just the red, white and green dots. Sometimes less is more!
A simple powdered sugar icing and food coloring are all that is needed for decorating.
I use parchment paper to make a piping bag and a number 4 piping tip to make the dots. There is no need to invest in decorating supplies since you can just put your icing in a small plastic storage bag and snip a little hole on one end to make the dots.
All done and decorated with red, white and green.
Are you ready to bake some cookies, go grab your cookie cutter and rolling pin?
Spiced Christmas Tree Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie Sheet Pans
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 3 cups AP Flour
- 2 tsp. ground ginger
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. cloves
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Powdered Sugar Icing
- 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 2 tbls corn syrup use light corn syrup
- 2 1/2 - 3 tbls. milk
- gel food coloring red and green
Instructions
Making the dough
- In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and brown sugar until creamed.
- Add in the eggs one at a time
- Add the vanilla and beat until fluffy
- Combine all the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture on low speed.
- Divide the dough and place on wax paper and flatten. Wrap and place in the fridge for 1/2 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- On a floured surface, roll out one batch of dough to 1/8" thickness and cut with floured cookie cutters.
- Set on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- Repeat with the remaining dough.
- When done set on a cooling rack until ready to decorate
Powdered Sugar Icing
- Mix the powdered sugar, corn syrup and milk in a small mixing bowl until smooth.
- Add more milk if the icing is too thick.
- You want this icing thick enough to pipe and not spread on the cookie.
- Divide the icing into three bowls and tint one with red food coloring and one with green food coloring.
- Place the icing in a piping bag with a #4 tip and slowly pipe dots all around the cookie in different colors
- Allow the icing to dry for an hour.
Notes
Nutrition
Now every good plate of cookies has a perfect tea to go with it. With so many delicious teas in our collection, we had to have lots of cuppas and Christmas Tree Cookies to find the perfect match. But we did it – and had some cookies to spare.
Today I am enjoying these wonderful spice cookies with a Tea Forte’s Spiced Ginger Plum Tea from their Warming Glow Collection.
These cookies and tea are the perfect pairings as the buttery plum flavor of the tea brings out the spices of the cookies and actually enhances the overall deliciousness of these cookies. Both the tea and the cookie have a subtle ginger flavor that is pure magic when enjoyed together. The beautiful plum color of the tea also adds so much joy to the experience that you just can’t help but be filled with Christmas spirit when you eat the cookies.
Christmas Cookies with Tea
Tea Forte offers a unique variety of high-quality teas with luxurious packaging. I just want to try all their teas.
Don’t forget the cookie-cutter and my favorite box of food coloring.
Wishing you many blessings and lots of joy for the holidays.
These christmas tree cookies look absolutely scrumptious! I always loved making cut out cookies with my mom growing up – spiced ones sound amazing!
I remember cutting out hearts with my mom for Valentine’s cookies over 50 years ago. I love to hear how cooking and baking bring back memories.
this spiced up cookie is definitely my kind of cookie and perfect for the holiday season! not to mention they look so pretty the way you decorated them
I love the idea of spicing the cookies and the spices add a lovely deeper colour to the cookies, which are also perfect as trees. I just had an event where I baked dozens and dozens and dozens of cookies for a client demo and this will be going into my little box of recipes to try for my next event! Thanks for sharing!
That sounds like a whole day of baking. Hope you get to make the spice cookies..
OMG they look stunning. I just made a batch of Gingerbread Men and was wondering what I can use my Christmas cookie cutter for and Now I have a perfect recipe. Love the cookies as well as the Icing on them. The colours are so vibrant and christmasy.
Oh man! I can almost smell the sweetness and spices of these cookies through my computer. This recipe sounds incredible. I love the simplicity of the icing dots! So cute!
These are too cute! I love a good spice cookie, especially during the holidays, so I’m definitely adding these to my baking list. Thanks for sharing!
We love cut-out cookies that don’t spread and these are great for the kiddos to decorate!
I have baked cookies for decorating only to find they all baked into one giant cookie on the pan. This dough is perfect for rolling and no spreading at all.
I just fell in love with these Christmas tree cookies! I’m not much of a baker but these sound super simple and I love the spices in them. Going to pin for later!
Totally agree when it comes to cookie decoration, less is more. Icing may look good, but it takes the glory away from the cookie. And these cookies sound so delicious with all their spices!
Thanks for the comment. I’m sticking with simple decorations from now on.
I love spices and I think I am in love with these spiced Christmas Tree cookies. They would be a great addition to my Christmas table!
These are absolutely lovely! Spice cookies have always been my favorite so I’m really looking forward to trying these. The candy decorations are a beautiful touch. Thank you for the inspiration!
Thanks for the kind comments. I am a big fan of spice.
These are very festive and very pretty. I like the fact you added ginger to give it a little kick. This is also fun to make with kids. Perfect for the holidays.
Ginger is my favorite spice.
I love spice cookies, and these are so beautiful and festive for the holidays! They are always first to go when I make them!
Such pretty holiday cookies! Love the little red and green ornaments — they’re like little jewels. And so lovely with the tea. So festive.
These cookies are adorable! Perfect for Christmas!
Gotta love Christmas time all these wonderful treats, cookies and cakes that we get to make. I am in love with these tree cookies so cute and perfect for Santa’s plate =)
Thanks for the kind comments, Santa would love these cookies.
Spiced cookies are delicious! What a fun treat to decorate with the family!
I am not a huge fan of regular sugar cookies but I can definitely get behind some spiced ones! These sound great and perfect for the holidays!
My kids and I were headed to the dollar store later today to get some holiday cookie cutters! I am so glad to find this spiced Christmas cookie recipe!
These are super cute. I think my grandkids would love to help me make/decorate these. Now, how to get them not to eat the decorations BEFORE we put them on the cookies.
I love those festive spice flavours too – so Christmassy! Love the look of these cookies with their brightly coloured baubles! So fun 🙂
I agree, all these spices just make me think of Christmas.