Get into the festive spirit with this Christmas Cookie Tree recipe
| 22nd December 2020
We can’t let COVID cancel Christmas for us this year, the celebrations must go on, and spreading some well-needed festive cheer is family-run French artisan bakery, PAUL.
Their legendary Mince Pie Croissant is back,as well as new UK-wide baking kits, a gingerbread éclair and, adding a touch of Christmas class to your table, show-stopping celebration cakes.
In the spirit of festive cheer, the expert bakers have shared with us their newest recipe, the Christmas Cookie Tree.
For those that want to recreate this tree at home, the company has created a fabulous kit, which includes five star-shaped cookie cutters in a range of sizes, a wooden stand, 450g PAUL flour, baking powder, icing sugar and golden sprinkles. All you need to create your very own sparkling, edible Christmas tree.
Plus, you have the ingredients already at home, why not give it a go yourself, and help to get those cupboards cleaned out before you start the Christmas day stockpile?
Ingredients
- 295g sugar
- 3 tsps vanilla extract
- 450g PAUL flour (or a strong white flour)
- 3g baking powder
- 200g icing sugar
- 15g golden sprinkles
- 225g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk
- 3g salt
- *5 star cutters in different sizes
- *1 small round cutter
- *Wooden stand
Method
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolk one at a time, mixing until fully incorporated. Finally, add the vanilla extract and mix until combined, then scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Slowly add the flour mix to the butter mixture and combine.
- Split the dough in two and wrap each piece in cling film before pressing down into a disc shape. Chill for at least 3 hours. Pre-heat the oven to 165° C (fan) line baking sheets with non-stick baking paper. Remove one dough disc from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured work surface to approximately 4-5mm thick.
- Cut out 4 of each star cutter size, and use the small round cutter to cut out a hole in the middle of each star. Cut two extra of the smallest star cutter size but don’t put any holes in them. Once you’ve used up your rolled out dough, take your second disc out of the fridge and roll that out too. Finish cutting out your stars. Put the cookies on the baking trays and return to the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until they turn golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and cool completely before decorating.
- Mix the icing sugar with approximately 2-3 tbsps water to create a thick paste. Dip your cookies into the icing sugar and then decorate with the golden sprinkles. For the two small stars without a hole, decorate with your icing, allow to dry, then ‘glue’ them together back to back using a blob of icing to form the star on top of your tree. Make sure all your iced stars are dry before assembling.
- Starting with the largest stars, thread them onto the holder, staggering them to build the tree, and moving through the sizes to finish with the smallest stars. Balance your tree-topping pair of stars you’ve stuck together on top.