Christmas Shortbread Cookies (2024)

🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Uses basic ingredients. Both the shortbread and buttercream use a short list of basic ingredients. Sprinkles and green food colouring are the only ingredients you may need to pop to the store.
• Melt-in-your-mouth-quality. My epic shortbread recipe is just that. Epic! It has the most divine, tender quality that can't be beaten.
• Simple to make. There's no fancy equipment or technique needed to make these Christmas Shortbread Cookies. Tree cookie stamps are easy to find in-store or online.
• Eye-catching. Sometimes it's fun to go all out on the Christmas vibe. There's no denying what season these cookies are perfect for. Winter! They give me all the cosy vibes!

TIP: Don't over mix the dough

This is my top tip when making shortbread. Mix it until it just starts to clump. Anymore and you'll start over mixing the dough which can result in tougher cookies.

An easy way to prevent over-mixing is to squeeze the dough together rather than kneading it. The heat of your hands will help it come together in a cohesive disc.

💭 Recipe Pro Tips

1. Room temperature butter. The only way to cream the butter successfully. You can't use cold butter or melted butter. Take it out of the fridge for at least 45 minutes before making the recipe. Cubing the butter makes it come up to room temperature quicker.
2. Don't overwork the dough. This only leads to activating the gluten, which in turn will affect the overall tender texture of the cookies.
3. Refrigerate the dough. Once the trees are cut out and on the baking tray, please, please, please do this. Otherwise, you'll end up with very oddly shaped cookies!
4. Go easy on the food colouring. Too much can affect the taste and texture of the buttercream. Add a little at a time.

Is shortbread traditional at Christmas?

In fact, yes, it is. When created, it was made to be enjoyed at celebrations such as birthdays, weddings and at Christmas time. It's such an easy cookie to make that there's no excuse to add some shortbread to your cookie box! My Pecan Shortbread is a perfect example!

Should shortbread be crunchy or soft?

A bit of both. It should have a little crispness around the edges, but when bitten, it should have a soft, melt-away texture. It shouldn't be wet underneath, though. This is a sign of under-baked shortbread.

What's the difference between sugar cookies and shortbread cookies?

The main difference is in the ingredients list. Sugar cookies have baking powder, acting as a leavener, making them lighter in texture. Shortbread doesn't have this making them crumbly and denser.

5 from 1 vote

Metric - US Customary

Shortbread

• ▢ 195 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• ▢ 90 g caster sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 270 g plain flour (all-purpose)
• ▢ ½ fine salt

Buttercream

• ▢ 170 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• ▢ 300 g powdered icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)
• ▢ 2-4 tablespoon milk
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ green food colouring

Make the Tree-shaped Cookies

• Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract.Line one or two baking trays with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar, and cream on medium speed until pale and lightened. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add in the vanilla extract and mix again.

• Add in flour and salt and beat them together.Add the flour into the creamed butter, and, at low speed, mix them all on low speed until they are combined. The dough will look quite raggedy.

• Form a dough and roll out. With your hands, squeeze the cookie dough together making a ball. Press it into a rough disc. Then on a lightly floured surface roll it out to a ½ cm thick. Note: if the dough is too soft at this point then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or longer until it firms up slightly and makes it easier to roll out. Keep an eye on it as if the dough is too hard, it will crack when you try to roll it out.

• Cut out cookie shapes and chill. Once the dough is rolled out, use a tree shaped cutter to stamp out the dough. Lay them onto the prepared baking tray. Bring together any scraps, re-roll and stamp out more cookies. And then, do it again if needs be. Just be aware that every time you re-form the dough, it will pull in the flour from the benchtop and hence may dry out the dough. Add a couple of drops of water to the dough if this happens.

  Now refrigerate the stamped cookies for 30 minutes minimum or until the cutouts have hardened. This means the butter has resolidified and will give you the best possible chance of the cookies retaining their shape in the oven.

• Bake. Preheat the oven to 170°C (335°F). Remove the cookies from the fridge, then bake for 12-15 mins or until golden around the edges. Cool on the tray for ten minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the Buttercream

• Beat the butter. Add the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until pale, approx 4 minutes.

• Add the icing sugar and vanilla. Sift in the powdered icing sugar into the butter and add in the vanilla extract. Mix on low until incorporated. Then, turn up to medium speed and beat for another couple of minutes.

• Add in the milk and food colouring. Add half the milk and beat in to the butter cream. Add more to create the perfect piping consistency.

  Split the buttercream into two bowls - these will form the green parts of the trees.

  Take two tablespoons from each of these bowls and put it into a third bowl. This will be for the white tip of the tree and you'll need a much smaller quantity.

  Add green food colouring into the two larger amounts of buttercream making sure there is a distinct difference in the shade of green. Add the green a drop at a time as a little goes a long way!

Decorate the Christmas Cookies

• Add the buttercream into three separate piping bags.You'll only need fairly small bags and can use sandwich bags if necessary. Just snip a ½ cm hole from the corner of each bag. No piping tips needed.

• Pipe the buttercream onto the cookies.The fun part. You are going to start from the bottom and work your way up piping the darker green buttercream first.

  Pipe blobs across the bottom of the cookie, but not on the trunk. Use the back of a spoon to press down in the centre of the blob and swipe up. Repeat on all the blobs. Then pipe and smear another row.

  Switch to the paler green buttercream and pipe three more rows of blobs, pressing the spoon handle into each blob and smearing up.

  Lastly add a bit of the white buttercream to the top of the tree. The sprinkle with your choice of sprinkles and a gold star if you can. But any sprinkles or jimmies will do!

Step-by-Step Photos: My blog post includes helpful step-by-step photos to help guide you through making this recipe.

Yield: I used a christmas tree cutter 7cm (3-inches) in diameter and cut out 18-20 cookies. The yield will demand on size and shape of your cutter and the thickness you roll out the dough to. This recipe can easily be doubled.

To store: Christmas Shortbread Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to one week.

To freeze: Undecorated shortbread can be stored in a freezer-safe container and frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight at room temperature.

TIP 1: Re-roll the dough.Once you've cut out the first round of cookies, make sure to bring the dough back together again with your hands, re-shape it then re-roll and cut out more cookies. I do this twice to get the maximum number of cookies from the dough.

TIP 2: Flour your cookie cutters.This stops the dough from sticking to them and avoids you having to peel the dough from the cutter, ruining the cookie shape.

TIP 3: Refrigerate the cookie dough.Unless you what a tray of odd-shaped cookies that have spread all over the place, the doughneedsto be chilled.

TIP 4: Keep an eye on the bake time.Everyone's oven runs at a slightly different temperature. With such a short bake time, a minute or two, either way, will make a difference.