These No Bake Christmas Tree Cookies are an easy no bake Christmas cookie that the whole family loves! Made with just a few ingredients and fun to decorate.
You might also like these 35+ Easy Christmas Treats (no bake!), 31 Best Christmas Cookies Recipes or these Christmas Desserts!
So I was determined this year to get a really good amount of Christmas baking done.
In fact, I started Christmas baking in July.
Last year, I didn’t do any Christmas baking. I didn’t even get a Christmas tree or any decorations.
We moved into our new house December 28 last year, so we were pretty much living out of boxes by that point, and things were pretty crazy.
I was determined to do better this year. Get a good early start and just go all out.
But this year, I’m expecting our second child right around December 15. Which really means probably sometime between December 1 and December 31 I’ll have a baby. That makes things a little hard to plan for.
However, it’s been just the push I needed this year to get a good early start, because I definitely wanted to have some recipes to share with you guys throughout December, regardless of when baby decides to make his or her appearance.
So just because you haven’t been seeing them until now doesn’t mean I have been baking all things red and green and peppermint/white chocolate/gingerbread/cranberry – I’ve just been hiding them on you until the time was right.
That is, I’ve been saving them for you so that when the rest of the world starts Christmas baking, I’ll be ready with some awesome treats for you guys.
My mom made these for Christmas when we were still at home (though she tells me only once), and I knew I wanted to recreate them. I’ve been seriously lacking in the cute-and-seasonal category for pretty much every holiday up until now, and I wanted to fix that.
Plus, I really, really like Christmas.
The original recipe didn’t have the mini M&M’s, but I thought it might add more of a Christmas touch to my snow-capped trees.
Plus, chocolate.
When I was decorating them my husband came in and I told him I was only going to put the M&M’s on enough for my daughter’s day care friends, as a little farewell gift before I was at home with 2 kids.
He says to me, ” you’re only putting the M&M’s on those ones??”
I could hear his disappointment.
I explained to him that it was a little fussy and time-consuming, with the gooey chocolate getting on your fingers and then making it difficult to get the M&M’s on the trees…. etc., etc., etc..
And after he left I added M&M’s to all of them. Because baking for men is a lot like baking for children, I find. They get kind of excited about bright colors and such.
And plus, chocolate.
So they might not look super fancy, or even neat, but you should see the way my husband’s girl’s eyes lit up when she saw them. I have a feeling I’ll be making a few batches!
No-Bake Christmas Tree Cookies: SO easy, just a few ingredients! Perfect for decorating with the kids. www.thereciperebel.com
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Prep Time 20 minutesmins
Total Time 20 minutesmins
Cuisine American
Course Dessert
Servings 24cookies
Calories 162cal
Ingredients
1/2cupbutter or margarine
2cupspowdered icing sugar
2tbspmilk
3cupsshredded coconutI used sweetened, but unsweetened would work fine
1/2tspvanilla or mint extract
green food coloring
3/4cupwhite chocolate chips
1tspbutter or margarine
1tbspmilk
mini M&Ms
Instructions
In a large pot, melt butter. Remove from heat.
Stir in icing sugar and milk. Stir in coconut, vanilla/mint and enough food coloring to make the mixture green.
Shape into small balls, and using the tips of your fingers gently squeeze one side of the ball until it takes on a cone shape. It might take a few tries to get them how you like them, but if the mixture gets too cool to work with you can always heat on low a minute or 2.
If you see any later you want to reshape, they are easily reshaped at room temperature.
Put uncovered on a baking sheet to set either in the fridge for 2-3 hours or the freezer for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
In a small pot, melt chocolate, 1 tsp butter and 1 tbsp milk over low heat, stirring, until smooth. Dip the tops of the cookies in the white chocolate to look like snow. Add mini M&M’s if desired.
Set in the fridge or freezer to set before storing in an air tight container.
Why Didn't My No-Bake Cookies Set? Likely, you didn't boil the mixture long enough. You want the butter, milk, sugar, and cocoa mixture to boil for 2-3 full minutes and reach between 190°F-200°F. If you don't boil them for long enough, they will turn out gooey and will not set.
Some people bring just one or two cookies for each guest, while others make a full dozen for every person! This is totally up to you, and it really depends on how many people you're having and how many cookies you want everyone to leave with.
History. Modern Christmas cookies can trace their history to recipes from Medieval Europe biscuits, when many modern ingredients such as cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, almonds and dried fruit were introduced into the west.
Freezing Instructions: Once completely set, the no-bake cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving. Butter: Coconut oil works instead of butter because like butter, it solidifies when cold.
Most no-bake cookies have some sticky ingredient to hold it together. If you used something sticky like butter, peanut butter, melted marshmallows or melted chocolate I would pop them in the fridge, so they firm up. If that doesn't help, I would completely dip them in melted chocolate and let them harden in the fridge.
To salvage sticky no-bake cookies, you can try the following: Reheat and Cook Longer: If the mixture is still soft after dropping them onto a baking sheet, you can try reheating it on the stovetop and cooking for a little longer until it thickens.
As for the cookies—made for cookie swaps, church potlucks, household snacking, and Santa's plate—there is one little cheat: make now, freeze for later. You'll find that most of your favorite Christmas cookie recipes can be made anywhere from a month to six months before the 25th of December.
Based on this data from General Mills, Peanut Butter Blossoms are the most popular Christmas cookie in the country; it's the most-visited cookie recipe in seven states, which means it's the most common favorite cookie in the U.S. That's a pretty high honor!
Bakery or homemade cookies can be stored at room temperature two to three weeks or two months in the refrigerator. Cookies retain their quality when stored in the freezer for eight to 12 months.
It wasn't until very recently, around 1938, that chocolate chip cookies were first invented. Unlike a lot of other things, the chocolate chip cookie was not invented by accident. During the 1930s, a chef named Ruth Graves Wakefield decided to give something different to her customers.
Pizzelles are the oldest known cookie and originated in the mid-section of Italy. They were made many years ago for the “Festival of the Snakes” also known as the “Feast Day of San Domenico”.
Those who would like to take credit for the invention of the Christmas cookie will have to arm wrestle the Germans for it. They believe that Weihnachtsplätzchen, a term that refers specifically to cookies and broadly to holiday treats, encompasses the origin of Christmas baking.
If your no bake cookies are sticky and gooey, then they were not boiled quite long enough. On the flip side, if your no bake cookies are dry and crumbly, they were boiled a tad too long. You should let the mixture come to a full rolling boil and then time exactly 1 minute from there.
Putting cookie dough into the freezer before baking can help solidify the fat from the butter in your cookies, which in turn keeps them from spreading too much in the oven. Colder dough will not expand as much as warm dough does.This will produce a higher, thicker cookie.
(Not everything should be frozen: Desserts with high water content — meringues, custards, puddings, whipped cream, gelatin-based sweets — develop ice crystals that make them break.)
Here are some common reasons: Underbaking: Cookies might not have been baked long enough. Ensure you follow the recommended baking time in the recipe and adjust based on your oven's characteristics. Too much moisture: Excess moisture, either from ingredients like eggs or butter, can result in soft cookies.
Baking cookies quickly in a hot oven – at 375 degrees F as opposed to a lower temperature – will make for soft results. They'll bake fast instead of sitting and drying out in the oven's hot air. Ever so slightly underbaking your cookies will give you softer results than cooking them the full amount the recipe says.
Using too much flour will make your cookies too cakey, so try reducing the flour amount by two tablespoons. Avoid using cake flour instead; try a mix of all-purpose flour and bread flour for a more dense and chewy texture.
“If you store cookies in the fridge, they will dry out,” Amanda says. The dry, cold air sucks the moisture right out of them. Instead, keep your cookies at room temperature, or freeze them for later. Store Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies the right way to keep their just-baked softness.
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