I saw a photo on Pinterest that made me fall in love: a small Christmas tree made entirely of shortbread cookies, with lots of holes filled with jam that look like colorful little windows. I couldn’t resist and recreated it in the “La Cucina di Asi” version: homemade, imperfect, simple, genuine, fragrant, and cute as a gift idea or as a centerpiece for the holidays.
This Advent Tree of Shortbread is very easy to prepare, you just need a good shortbread dough that holds up well during baking and doesn’t deform, some jams of different colors, and Christmas cutters to make the center holes. The result is scenic, delicate, and delicious.
N.B. I used fig, strawberry, and peach jam but… I hoped the flavor changes would be more visible, DARN!
P.S. The number of cookies is equal to one stick as the trunk, one star as the top, and 16 whole triangles and 16 cut-out triangles!
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I have opened a channel of recipes open to everyone and free on WhatsApp with no notifications and no sound, which you can subscribe to by clicking on the link here https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaHbGIn9cDDig7Cw2x0F and every day you can read a sweet and a savory recipe!
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🎄 Smart Tip
If some triangles turn out more golden at the edges, powdered sugar evens everything out.
With jams of different colors, the tree becomes even more scenic.
It keeps perfectly under a cover for 4–5 days
Always on the TOPIC of Christmas Cookie Recipes here are some ideas just below:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 15 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Christmas
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup butter (cold and diced)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or also organic lemon zest or untreated)
- 1 pinch salt
- as needed jam (of various flavors and colors)
- as needed powdered sugar (to sprinkle over the tree triangles)
Tools
- Cutters
- Cookie Cutters
- Cutters
- Parchment Paper
- Baking Trays
Steps
Work the butter and flour until you get a sandy consistency.
Add powdered sugar, egg, salt, and chosen flavoring.
Quickly knead all the ingredients, form a dough ball and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour.After the resting time, place the dough ball between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 3/16 inch.
Cut out many little triangles all the same size, a stick as a trunk, and a star for the top of the shortbread tree.
With the mini Christmas-themed cutters given the period, cut the central hole on half of the triangles (these will be the “lids” of the top part of the double cookie that will form the Christmas tree).Now arrange all the shortbread cookies on a baking tray lined with suitable paper and bake at 350°F static for 10–12 minutes, carefully monitoring that they remain light.
I watched closely and honestly, I burnt an entire tray and here… I saved myself for a couple of lids by covering the too golden part with powdered sugar!
Let it cool completely.
Sprinkle powdered sugar over all the cut-out triangles.
Spread a thin layer of jam over the whole triangles, varying the flavors if you like.
Place the cut-out “lids” on top.Arrange all the double and filled triangles as in the photo.
Add the shortbread star as the top and the small rectangle as the trunk.Here’s the tree of shortbread filled with jam ready.
Enjoy your meal! Annalisa
