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Swirly Christmas Tree Cookies

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  • Prep 1 hr 5 min
  • Total 1 hr 15 min
  • Ingredients 4
  • Servings 20
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These adorable tree cookies are so easy to make with Pillsbury™ cookie dough! What a fun way to spend time with your kiddos, making these little treats that really deliver on joy! Little fingers can help shape the dough ropes and decorate the trees.
Updated Dec 7, 2023
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What are Swirly Christmas Tree Cookies?

These Christmas tree sugar cookies made by rolling sugar cookie dough into logs and then twisting the ropes back and forth to make the darling tree cookies. Topped with mini candy-coated chocolate candies and colored sugar that get baked right into the cookies. No further decorating necessary!

What Are Other Ways to Decorate the Trees?

You can omit either the candies or the colored sugar or both! Once these cookie Christmas trees are baked, you can decorate with your favorite icings and sprinkles.

Ingredients

Steps

  • 1
    Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, break up cookie dough. Stir or knead in 1/4 cup all-purpose flour until well blended. (DO NOT EAT RAW COOKIE DOUGH AFTER COMBINING WITH FLOUR.) Divide dough in half; wrap each half in plastic wrap. Place in freezer 10 minutes.
  • 2
    Shape half of dough into 1-inch balls. With fingers, roll each ball into 10-inch rope, about 1/4 inch wide. Break off small piece from each rope for tree trunk. Carefully place ropes on ungreased cookie sheet.
  • 3
    With each rope, starting at top, twist rope back and forth into tree shape, gradually making larger at bottom (rows of dough should touch). If rope breaks, press dough together. Place small piece at bottom of each tree for trunk. Repeat with remaining half of dough.
  • 4
    Decorate trees with candies to look like ornaments or lights. Place candy at top of each tree for star; sprinkle with sugar. Bake 9 to 13 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

Tips from the Pillsbury Kitchens

  • tip 1
    We’ve found in our testing that it is much easier and faster to mix flour into the cookie dough, if you break it up before adding the flour.
  • tip 2
    Freezing the dough makes it easier to work with. Be sure to divide it in half before freezing, so that it only needs to be in the freezer for 10 minutes. It will take more time for the dough to lose its stickiness if you freeze all the dough in one piece.
  • tip 3
    Add green food coloring to the dough, if desired.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why don’t my trees look like the photo?

To make your Christmas tree cookies look like the ones in the photo, take out only one half of the dough from the freezer at a time to work with and bake one batch at a time. Work quickly shaping the dough and decorating the trees to keep it from warming up from your hands or from the room. If the dough is too warm, it can either puff up, losing the swirly appearance and/or flatten when baked. Be sure to use completely cooled cookie sheets, so the cookies don’t spread or flatten. If you have a second cookie sheet, you can form your trees and decorate them while the first batch bakes.

Nutrition Information

110 Calories, 5g Total Fat, 0g Protein, 16g Total Carbohydrate, 8g Sugars

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 Large Cookie (Without Decorations)
Calories
110
Calories from Fat
45
Total Fat
5g
7%
Saturated Fat
1g
6%
Trans Fat
1g
Cholesterol
10mg
3%
Sodium
65mg
3%
Potassium
0mg
0%
Total Carbohydrate
16g
5%
Dietary Fiber
0g
0%
Sugars
8g
Protein
0g
% Daily Value*:
Vitamin A
0%
0%
Vitamin C
0%
0%
Calcium
0%
0%
Iron
2%
2%
Exchanges:
1/2 Starch; 0 Fruit; 1/2 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Skim Milk; 0 Low-Fat Milk; 0 Milk; 0 Vegetable; 0 Very Lean Meat; 0 Lean Meat; 0 High-Fat Meat; 1 Fat;
Carbohydrate Choice
1
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

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