Christmas Tree 3DCookie

Thismonth’s Recipe Remake – chosen by the random scroll of “holiday recipes” on Pinterest – is the slightly intimidating 3D Christmas Tree, made from gingerbread and royal icing. As a baker, I was excited to take on this challenge and, despite a few hiccups, equally excited to bring my creation to the office to show everyone.

Everything about the project was pretty basic, it was just very time consuming. And the hiccups? Not so bad, really.

Hiccup No. 1: No recipe. Although the Pinterest post included nice photos and commentary about how “Your friends and family will be amazed by this 3D Gingerbread Cookies Christmas Tree!” – the link to the recipe and instructions was broken. So, I improvised and found a recipe for a gingerbread house. As far as instructions, I just used the photos from the Pinterest site to wing it. We’re just stacking cookies, right?

Hiccup No. 2: No cookie cutters. Who owns 10 multisized star-shaped cookie cutters? Not me, so I used the handy dandy star shape in Microsoft Word and created my own templates.

Hiccup No. 3: Old fashioned food coloring. Seems the ol’ liquid drops of green food coloring I’ve had in my cupboard for umpteen years don’t create that deep forest green color –more of a limey pastel. “Would this look weird? It’s not really the color of trees,” I fretted to my husband, who assured me it’d be fine, so I forged ahead.

Hiccup No. 4: No piping bag. Instead, I used a plastic quart-size baggie and snipped the corner – good to go!

If you want to give this project a try, I’d say go for it! Just plan ahead – the dough needs to chill, so make it first thing in the morning, then roll out, cut and bake your cookies in the afternoon, and the next day, make the frosting and assemble.

Do you have a favorite recipe that you’d like to share with us and our readers? Email us at magazines@ duluthnews.com and our Woman Today taste testers will enjoy preparing and reviewing your recipe.

Taste Tester Comments

“It was almost too pretty to eat! I liked that it wasn’t covered in icing, just the outer tips of the stars had it. I think it would have been too sweet had there been more icing. The cookie was soft and chewy, loved this!”

“The stacked star cookies with bright green icing and decorative sprinkles would make a festive table centerpiece for the holidays. The gingerbread was very fragrant and the amount of spice in the cookie was nice.”

“No way could this beautiful cookie art be eaten! But I was thankful to have a sample of leftover cookies :) And wow, they were delicious and chewy. I may have had more than my fair share!”

This is definitely something you want to display around the holiday season. Perfect size and festive for any room. The gingerbread was soft and had just the right amount of frosting.

3D Cookie Christmas Tree

Cookie Ingredients:

6 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves or allspice

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup dark molasses

1 tablespoon water

Cookie Instructions:

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.

2. In your mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, molasses and water until well blended.

3. Add half of the flour mixture until well blended and smooth. Stir in the remaining flour. Using your mixer’s dough hook, knead (or manually knead) until well blended.

4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling out.

5. Working with a portion of the dough at a time, roll to ¼-inch thickness and cut with cookie cutters or use knife to cut out 10 star shapes. (My star templates were 2, 2½, 3, 3½, 4, 4½, 6 and 6½” wide). Cut out 2 stars of each size. I also made a 1½-inch star for the top.

6. Place cutouts on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes for the smaller shapes and up to 12-15 minutes for the largest shapes. Cool on a cooling rack. Store in a sealed container until assembly.

Royal Icing Ingredients:

Egg whites from 2 large eggs (or 3 ounces)

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups confectioner’s sugar

Icing Instructions:

1. In your mixing bowl, whip egg whites until fluffy (a few minutes), and add vanilla.

2. Slowly ad the confectioner’s sugar and whip for 5 minutes.

3. Add food coloring and blend well.

4. Transfer to a piping bag.

Tree Assembly:

1. Place the largest cookie in the center of your display plate, using a dollop of icing to secure it to the plate.

2. Decorate the tips of the star with the icing, then add swirl of icing in the center to secure the next cookie.

3. Place the second cookie on top – turned a tad so the points alternate – then decorate the tips, add a swirl of icing in the center, and repeat, using the next size cookie, and so on.

Baker’s Note: Add sprinkles or other decorations during assembly, while the icing is soft, so they stick. I waited until I had the whole tree done, and then my sprinkles just bounced off because the icing had started to harden. D