Sugar Cookie Christmas Tree (Vegan)
A sweet, buttery sugar cookie Christmas tree topped with fluffy almond buttercream and colorful dye-free sprinkles, the perfect, plant-based holiday centerpiece.
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
- 280 grams (2½ sticks) plant based butter with salt - cooler side of room temperature
- 250 grams (1¼ cups) cane sugar
- 450 grams (3¾ cup) all-purpose flour
- 75 grams (5 tbsp) plant based yogurt - cooler side of room temperature
- 2½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1¼ tsp almond extract
Buttercream
- 600 grams (5 cups) powdered sugar
- 280 grams (2½ sticks) plant based butter with salt - room temperature
- ½ + ⅛ tsp almond extract
- 1¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 5 tbsp dairy free heavy cream - cold from the refrigerator
Decorations
- Supernatural Christmas Softies sprinkles
- Supernatural Jingle Pop sprinkles
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
- This is the star cutter I used. Please see the notes section for how many cookies per cutter you will need for the cookie tree.
- Place the butter and sugar in a medium bowl. Using a handheld mixer, blend the butter and sugar together at medium-high speed until light and creamy - about 2 minutes.
- Add the yogurt, vanilla extract and almond extract to the butter mixture. Continue with the handheld mixer, blending at medium speed for about 1 minute.
- Add half of the flour to the wet ingredients, blending at medium speed for 30 seconds, add the rest of the flour and blend at medium speed until all of the flour is incorporated.
- Divide the dough into 3 portions, form each portion into a disc and wrap each disc in plastic wrap. Place the wrapped dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour or up to overnight.
- Line 3 to 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Remove one portion of dough from the refrigerator at a time. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out to a ¼ inch thickness. Begin cutting out the star shaped cookies. Reroll the dough as many times as you need to; use as much of the dough as you can but try to handle the dough as little as possible. Place the cut-out cookies on the lined baking sheets.
- Cover and place the cut cookies in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Once the oven has reached the desired temperature begin baking the cookies.***I place the cookies come out of the refrigerator, on a new room temperature tray, I do not bake them on the cold tray.
- The 2 smallest size cookies - cutters 1 and 2 - should bake 9 to 11 minutes - I had to remove the smallest cookies at 9 minutes and let the larger cookie bake a little longer. Once the edges begin to brown, they are done.***see notes section for more on cutter numbers and sizes
- The middle size cookies - cookie cutter sizes 3, 4, 5, and 6 - should bake 13 to 15 minutes. Remember the smaller ones will be ready before the larger ones, remove them as they start browning.
- The larger cookies - cookie cutter sizes 7, 8, 9, and 10 - should bake 19 to 21 minutes. The smaller ones will start browning before the larger ones, remove them as they become ready.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating them. ***The cookies can be baked on one day, stored in an airtight container and decorated the next day.
- I had enough dough left over after cutting out all of the cookies needed for the tree to cut a few more of sizes 1, 2, and 3 - about 10.
Buttercream
- Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk attachment. Whip the butter on high for 3 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar and blend on medium speed until all of the powdered sugar is incorporated - about a minute.
- Add the vanilla extract, almond extract and dairy free heavy cream to the bowl. Blend on high for 3 minutes.
Decorating
- Remember not to start decorating until the cookies are room temperature. Lay out all the cookies, making sure you have all of your cookies - I laid mine out 10 to 1 - you should have 16 cookies.***See the notes section for cookie sizes and how many of each cookie you will need.
- Add the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with the piping top of your choice. I used Wilton #18 for the 2 small size cookies (cutters 1 and 2) and Wilton #21 on the rest of the cookies.
- Cover the tops of each cookie with piped buttercream. Decorate the cookies with your favorite festive sprinkles - I used Supernatural Jolly Pop! and Christmas Softies. I stored the decorated cookies in an airtight container in a single layer overnight in the refrigerator and assembled the tree the next day.***Make sure the frosting has dried and hardened before assembling the tree.
Assembly
- Lay out all of your decorated cookies. Place the largest cookie on a plate, cake stand or serving dish and begin stacking the cookies working from largest to smallest. Make sure to rotate every other cookie so the star points don't line up Once done, the stack of cookies should take the shape of a tree. Place the last tiny star upright on top.
- The cookie Christmas tree is ready to be displayed or served. I suggest storing the tree in the refrigerator to keep the buttercream firm.
Notes
Tips:
- I used a Wilton #18 and #21 piping tips
- Make sure the butter and yogurt are on the cooler side of room temperature
- The cutters from small to larger are numbered 1 - 10