I love Christmas cookies decorated with royal icing but they’re an absolute pain to make. You have to mix up several batches of icing for all the different colors you want, fit multiple pastry bags with tips, and then carefully fill each bag with icing. All that before you even start decorating! It’s very time consuming and the clean up is no fun either. Raspberry Filled Christmas Tree Cookies are much less work but no less beautiful. The idea for these cookies comes from the The New York Times.Their recipe calls fora linzer cookie dough but I opted for a classic sugar cookie dough because I thought the paler color of the dough would highlight the red raspberry jam better. Plus, I already had a batch of sugar cookiedough in my freezer just waiting to be transformed into Yuletide goodness!
Because Raspberry Filled Christmas Tree Cookies are essentially two individual cookies sandwiched together you’ll want to roll the cookie dough out fairly thin – to a thickness of about 1/16 inch. When rolling out cookie dough it’s sometimes hard to keep it an even thickness, especially if you’re trying to roll it out thin, like you need to with these cookies. This is the rolling pin I use and I swear by it! You will never have uneven cookies or pie crust again!
The raspberry jam acts as the glue that holds the two cookies together and adds a delicious tart layer of flavor. Use the bottom of a drinking straw to cut holes in the cookies which will resemble ornaments on each of the trees. Some straws have bigger openings than others. Make sure the straw opening is at least 1/4 inch so you have nice sized holes to showcase the raspberry jam. Raspberry Filled Christmas Tree Cookies are perfect for cookie swaps, hostess gifts, and holiday entertaining.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
5.0 from 1 reviews
Raspberry Filled Christmas Tree Cookies
Author: QUEEN OF MY KITCHEN
Serves: 28 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup raspberry jam
- 1 teaspoon confectioner’s sugar
Instructions
- Cream the butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, and salt.
- Add the egg to blend.
- Add the flour and mix until well combined. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
- Roll out the cookie dough on a floured counter to a thickness of 1/16 of an inch and stamp out 56 cookies using a Christmas tree cookie cutter that measures about 2 ½ inches wide by 3 ½ inches high. Place the cookies on parchment lined sheet pans.
- Using the bottom of a drinking straw that has a ¼ inch opening, make holes on half (28) of the Christmas trees. There should be about 9 or 10 holes on each cookie.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool completely.
- Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam onto the bottom (flat side) of one of the cookies without the holes and then top it with one of the cookies with holes, flat sides together. Press the cookies together gently. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Dust with confectioner's sugar.
Nutrition Information
Serving size:1 cookie, Calories:146, Fat:7g, Saturated fat:4g, Unsaturated fat:3g, Trans fat: 0g, Carbohydrates:19g, Sugar:7g, Sodium:73mg, Fiber:0g, Protein:2g, Cholesterol:24mg
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33 Comments on Raspberry Filled Christmas Tree Cookies
These cookies look amazing – especially the way the jam shows through — and your photography is terrific! Was wondering if you use Tailwind — because I am starting a new tribe called CHRISTMAS COOKIES and I’d love for you to participate! If you’re interested, send me an e-mail and I’ll invite you! Thanks — these cookies are going on my MUST TRY list this year!
Thanks Lisa!
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Wooow! These cookies look so adorable! 🙂
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Thanks Vesna – so easy too. Hope you give them a try.
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Can you make this dough ahead of time and freeze it for later?
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Can you make this dough and freeze it for later?
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Yes! I do it all the time and it works beautifully. Tip – after you mix up the dough pat it out into a flat slab and wrap it tighlty in plastic wrap. If you freeze it in one big, round clump it will take a long time to defrost. Flattening it before freezing will speed up the time it takes to defrost.
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Do you store them made up with the jam, or make them up as needed? If you do make them up early; do you store them in the fridge or pantry?
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Hi Jami – These cookies can be stored at room temperature for a day or two but for longer term storage I’d put them in the fridge. Making them up as needed is also an option and would keep them extra fresh.
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These look cute. I’m going to try them. Does it matter if the butter is salted or unsalted?
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Hi Christine – I used salted butter for this recipe. If you use unsalted butter I’d put in an extra 1/2 teaspoonof salt.
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can these cookies be frozen.
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Hi Toni – Yes, you can do it two ways.
1.Bake the tops and bottoms of the cookies per the recipe, cool completely, and then freeze in an airtight container. When you’re ready to serve them, bring to room temperature, then fill with the raspberry jam and dust with sugar.
2.You can freeze them assembled too, just leave off the powdered sugar and be aware that the jam will not freeze solid, so separate the cookies with a layer of plastic wrap or parchment paper inside the storage container. Important – don’t dust the cookies with the powdered sugar util after they’ve completely thawed.Reply
Are the cookies going to be salty if you salted butter as I mistakenly used the salted butter one time when I made the Molasses cookies, they were so salty that I have to toss them all away.
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Hi Janet – Salted butter is fine. That’s what I always use when I make these cookies. Happy Holiday!
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Thanks, just making sure as I have both salted and unsalted butter at home.
I am very excited to make these cookies for the holiday, will let you know how it goes.
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Yes, please do!
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Great recipe. I needed to add an extra egg to get the dough to combine well.
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Ooooooh… I cant wait to try these..they are so cute and look yummy!
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I made these with Agave rather than sugar and was planning to make a second back with sugar to see if there’s a difference in the composition of the dough. Would you happen to know if substituting Agave would make a difference?
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Hi Sue – I wouldn’t try substituting agave for the sugar as it will change the consistency of the dough. If you’re looking to use a less refined sweetener try coconut sugar. Hope that helps.
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Do you think I could substitute gluten free flour?
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Yes gluten-free flour should work fine. Just make sure you use a brand that is a 1:1 replacement.
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I made these cookies for the first time. They turned out just like the picture and the flavor is really good.
I will be making a double batch for Christmas to give out to family.Reply
Thank you Kathy. So glad you like the recipe!
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I have been using your recipe for the last 3 years but haven’t found the perfect tree cookie cutter yet. Do you have a link for yours?
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Hi Bobbie – I don’t have a link but any Christmas trees cookie cutter that measures about 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches will work.
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