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Easy Decked Out Christmas Tree Cookies. Sweet milk chocolate sandwiched between vanilla brown sugar cookies. Then decorated with melted white chocolate and fun holiday sprinkles. Easy to make and so yummy! The secret is all in combining brown sugar and real vanilla bean, which keep these cookies incredibly flavorful. Not to mention the chocolate-filled middles! These make for a great homemade gift and a festive addition to your holiday cookie box!
And we’re back with more cookies! ‘Tis this season! I had so many new recipes this year. It was hard to decide what to make, but these have always been high on my list! Inspired by the Trader Joe’s Decked Out Tree Cookies, I wanted to make my own homemade Christmas tree sugar cookies version.
I knew I could make them so delicious and have fun with the shapes + decorating too! I love how these turned out. They ended up being a really easy way to make festive holiday, Pinterest worthy cookies. And DELICIOUS cookies, too; we love the chocolate centers.
The best part is that we don’t have to mess around with any frosting! Just melted chocolate and sprinkles are all you need!
I used my very favorite vanilla brown sugar cookie recipe for the sugar cookies. The centers of each cookie are stuffed with melted chocolate – use either milk or semi-sweet – so yummy!
For decorating, I ended up dipping the cookies in melted white chocolate and then adding a few holiday sprinkles for fun. These would be great for younger kids to decorate over Christmas break!
Of course, they’ll be eating them as they decorate!
Here are all the details
Step 1: make the cookie dough
Beat the butter with the brown sugar and vanilla bean powder. You’ll want to beat for at least a minute to really infuse the butter with the vanilla flavor. Next, add an egg and all the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt. There’s absolutely nothing fancy here.
If you don’t want your cookies to spread at all, I would omit the baking soda. You can see my cookies did spread a little. But I do think the cookies taste yummier with baking soda, so I didn’t mind. I think they’re perfectly imperfect!
Step 2: Roll the dough out
Whenever I make any kind of cut-out cookie, I always like to roll out the dough, cut the cookies, and then freeze the cut cookies on a baking sheet for a few minutes. This ensures that the cookies hold their shape.
I used a Christmas tree cookie cutter and snowflakes to cut my cookies. Then, for the cutouts, I used smaller trees and smaller snowflakes. If you don’t have small cookie cutters, don’t stress!
All you need to do is take a small pairing knife and cut out a 1-inch triangle from half of the tree cookies. If you make snowflakes, cut out a small circle from half of the cookies. They’ll be great, cookie cutters or no cookie cutters.
Step 3: Freeze and bake
Freeze the cookies in a single layer for 20 minutes, then bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies turn light golden on the edges.
Let the cookies cool before spreading with chocolate.
Step 4: the chocolate
Melt semi-sweet or milk chocolate in the microwave, then spread a small amount, about 2 teaspoons, over the bottom cookie (this is the cookie with no hole). Place the top cookie (the cookie with a hole) over the chocolate.
Sandwich the cookies together. The melted chocolate will push up through the hole of each cookie. It always turns out cute!
Step 5: decorate. It’s easy!
Now, this is certainly the fun part – decorating. I used melted white chocolate and drizzled it over each cookie. Then I did a light sprinkling of assorted holiday sprinkles (mine are from Target).
Once the chocolate has hardened, you can package these up for gifting. Or simply eat and enjoy with family and friends.
They’re really such a fun and delicious cookie to make this holiday season! Anything with holiday sprinkles will always be cute!
Asher wasn’t around when I made these, so I can’t wait to make them again soon with her. She and Oslo are going to love them! They’re the perfect Christmas cookie to make with kids!
Looking for other Christmas cookies? Here are my favorites:
Vanilla Brown Sugar Eggnog Cookies
Vanilla Hot Chocolate Molten Cookies
Vanilla Ginger Shortbread Wreaths
Easy Vanilla Bean Christmas Lights Cookies
Lastly, if you make these easy Decked Out Christmas Tree Cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Easy Decked Out Christmas Tree Cookies
Servings: 15 cookies
Calories Per Serving: 263 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) salted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder, or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus an additional 2-4 tablespoons, if needed
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 12 ounces milk or semi-sweet chocolate, melted
- 4 ounces white chocolate, melted
- assorted sprinkles, for decorating
Instructions
- 1. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and mix until combined. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, beat until combined and the dough forms a ball. If the dough feels too wet to roll out, add 2-4 tablespoons of additional flour.2. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.3. Divide the dough in half. Roll the dough on a floured piece of parchment paper to 1/4 inch thickness. Make sure you're using enough flour, or your dough will stick. Cut out the shapes using a 2-3 inch Christmas tree or snowflake cookie cutter. Transfer the cookies to a parchment-lined baking sheet. I recommend using a floured spatula to lift the cookies. Roll out the leftover scraps, and repeat with the remaining dough. You should have around 30 cookies. 4. Using a small (1-inch) tree or snowflake/star cookie cutter, cut a hole into the center of 1/2 of the cookies. These are the “top cookies,” and the ones without a hole are the “bottom cookies". Cover the baking sheets and place in the freezer until firm, 20 minutes.5. Bake the cookies on the middle rack of the oven for 8-12 minutes or until just lightly golden. Let cool.6. To assemble, spread the melted chocolate over the bottom cookies. Place the top cookie (the cookies with a hole) over the chocolate, gently pressing to adhere. Drizzle the cookies with melted white chocolate. Decorate as desired with your favorite sprinkles. The cookies can be served immediately, or stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Notes
If you don’t have a small cookie cutter for the center: If you don’t have any smaller cookie cutters for the center, use a paring knife to cut out a triangle in the center of each cookie, or a circle if you make snowflakes. Easy!
Would the amount of vanilla bean paste be 1 tbls as well? I don’t have powder but want the speckles the paste would provide. I did some looking online and it looks like it would be but that site also indicated powder would be the same and that is not what the recipe shows so was hoping to confirm.
Thank you!
Lisa
Can these cookies be frozen after the chocolate finishes? It would be one less cookie to be made close to Christmas!
Hi Susan! Yes, that should work just fine! xT
Just left a cookie party and won “prettiest cookie” (note I am not a frequent baker)
Amazing!! Thank you so much Gwen! Love to hear that! xT
I’m curious about the flavor difference you mentioned with the baking soda? That’s not something I’ve ever really noticed/thought about! These look good!
Can this dough be made in advance and refrigerated over night?
Hi Karol! Yes, you definitely can make this in advance! xT
All the cookies are good; I am hoping to make a batch if not this weekend than next; so that we can have some for the holidays; thank you for sharing.
Happy Holidays! 🙂 xT
It looks like the melting chocolate directions are missing from the bottom recipe steps. Might be nice if you split out the cookie ingredients from the filling from the topping. I originally thought you meant to mix the two different chocolate chip types together for the filling. Cute cookies though.