These delightful Gingerbread Christmas Tree Cookies are a festive treat that will add a touch of holiday magic to your baking repertoire. With their charming appearance and scrumptious flavor, these cookies are perfect for sharing with loved ones or for adorning your holiday dessert table. The recipe involves making gingerbread cookies in various sizes, decorating them with royal icing and colorful fondant, and assembling them into adorable edible Christmas trees.
Prep: 1 hour (plus 1 hour chilling time)
Cook :15 mins
Makes: 4
Difficulty: Easy
INGREDIENTS:
GINGERBREAD
1 x quantity of Basic Gingerbread
TOOLS
Star cutter set to include: 4 cm, 6 cm, 7 cm, 8 cm, and 9 cm cutters
ROYAL ICING
- 4 egg whites
- 8 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
DECORATIONS
- Hundreds and Thousands
- Red ready-to-roll fondant
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Divide chilled gingerbread dough in half. Roll each half between sheets of baking paper until 5 mm thick.
- Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan forced. Line baking trays with baking paper.
- Using the cookie cutters, cut eight stars for each cutter size (4 cm, 6 cm, 7 cm, 8 cm, 9 cm stars) from dough. You will have 40 stars in total. Cut out an extra four x 4 cm stars to use to top the tree. Transfer stars to prepared trays. Re-roll the dough as needed to achieve the correct number of stars. Bake stars for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool on trays.
- Meanwhile, prepare the royal icing. Beat egg whites until foamy, then gradually beat in sifted icing sugar until smooth and spreadable.
- Reserve 4 of the 4 cm stars and set aside. For the remaining stars, spread royal icing on each star, then dip them into a bowl containing hundreds and thousands. Set aside for the icing to set.
- While the iced stars are setting, roll out the fondant to 1 cm thick. Use the 4 cm star cutter to cut out 4 fondant stars. Attach them to the reserved 4 cm gingerbread stars using a little royal icing. Set aside.
- Assemble trees by stacking each star slightly offset with another star of the same size. Continue stacking, grading from the largest at the bottom and reducing in star size as you stack, until you have 4 trees.
- Crown each tree with the red fondant stars, positioning them upright. If there’s leftover royal icing, use it to create the illusion of snow dripping off the trees’ tips.
Tips:
- To ensure your stars hold their shape and stack properly, use a little dab of royal icing at the base of each star as a “glue.”
- If you’re worried about your stars leaning or not holding together well, consider allowing the royal icing to set a bit before assembling the trees.
- Experiment with different colors of fondant and sprinkles to create a personalized and festive look for your gingerbread trees.
- Make sure to roll out the gingerbread dough evenly for consistent thickness and baking.
These Gingerbread Christmas Tree Cookies, with their delightful appearance and delicious taste, are a fantastic addition to your holiday baking. Whether enjoyed as a sweet treat or used as charming decorations, they are sure to bring joy to your festive celebrations.
