Tree Sugar Cookies Without Artificial Colors
These Tree Sugar Cookies Without Artificial Colors use plant based food dyes for beautiful and vibrant Christmas cookies with no artificial colors. Try these organic holiday cookies this Christmas season!
If you're looking for more festive Christmas cookies, be sure to check out some of my other favorites like Holiday Sugar Cookies with Icing, Candy Cane Crunch Dark Chocolate Cookies, Peppermint Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies, or Eggless Pumpkin Gingerbread Cookies.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Tree Sugar Cookies Without Artificial Colors
- Ready In: 56 minutes
- Makes: 30 cookies
- Main Ingredients: butter, cane sugar, eggs, all purpose flour
- Flavor Profile: buttery, sweet with a hint of spice
- Dietary Info: no seed oils, gluten free swap available
- Difficulty: Medium
- Why You’ll Love It: cozy Christmas tree cookies without artificial colors
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- No Artificial Colors: The holidays can be full of artificial colors just to make things “festive”. But, you can make beautifully decorated Christmas cookies with no artificial colors when you bake with me!
- Fun and Festive: If you're looking for fun organic cookies to decorate with your kids, then this recipe is it!
- Soft and Spiced: These organic holiday cookies are classic sugar cookies that are soft and perfectly spiced with cloves for warm and cozy Christmas cookies.
- Organic Cookies: Skip the store bought Christmas cookies this season and make these homemade Christmas cookies instead. You'll feel good about enjoying and sharing these with family and friends!
You'll love this recipe for organic holiday cookies because they are made with no artificial colors! The holidays can be full of red, green, and sprinkles with artificial colors. I always use natural food dyes and sprinkles, like in Vegan Christmas Tree Brownies, and these Tree Sugar Cookies are no exception! You can achieve beautiful and colorful Christmas cookies with no artificial colors, just like Simple Christmas Shortbread Cookies.
If you are looking for more fun and festive holiday treats, check out some of my other desserts made using plant based dyes! You'll love Dark Chocolate Peppermint Pretzel Bark, Chocolate Peppermint Christmas Tree Cupcakes, Easy Christmas Present Brownies, Christmas Lights Gingerbread Snack Cake, Peanut Butter Pretzel Christmas Crack, or Eggnog Sheet Cake!
Ingredients
- Vanilla Extract: Use a high quality vanilla extract as these are a vanilla sugar cookie. I love Simply Organic.
- All Purpose Flour: My favorite is Cairnspring Mills!
- Cloves: I use organic ground cloves for a bit holiday spice. If you don't have cloves, you can use cinnamon.
- Baking Powder: We need baking powder here, as there is no acid to react with baking sodas (so don't use that!). Check out my post the Difference Between Baking Soda and Baking Powder for more info on leavening agents.
- Powdered Sugar: Make sure you sift powdered sugar for smooth icing.
- Cocoa Powder: I use NuNaturals Organic Dutch Cocoa Powder, this is what makes the tree trunks brown.
- Plant Based Dyes: I use ColorKitchen Foods plant based dyes in these cookies! They make these Christmas cookies incredibly bright and vibrant.
- Coconut: I use organic unsweetened fine shredded coconut to mimic snow!
*For a full list of ingredients and measurements, visit the recipe card below.
Baker's Tips for Tree Sugar Cookies Without Artificial Colors
- Always weigh ingredients for the best results.
- If you don't want to cut out the cookies, you can simply roll them into balls (flatten slightly) and just frost them any way you like!
- I use different colors to make pink trees, green trees, white trees, and even blue trees, but you can use just all one color if you prefer.
- You can use different cookie cutters to make different holiday shapes if you like.
- Because these cookies are decorated with buttercream, they are best made and eaten the same day. You can store them in an airtight container but the decorated frosting may not hold it's shape as this is buttercream, not royal icing.
- These need to be stored in an airtight container so they stay soft. I recommend placing a piece of parchment paper in between cookies if you plan to store them.
- Gluten Free — Replace the organic flour for 270 grams (1 ¾ cups) gluten free flour blend.
- High Altitude — Bake at 375°F for 8 minutes or until lightly browned on bottoms.
How to Make Tree Sugar Cookies Without Artificial Colors
Step 1: Make the Cookies
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, cane sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix on low until all ingredients are combined and there’s no butter chunks. Add the eggs and mix just slightly.
In a separate bowl, add the flour, cloves, baking powder and salt and whisk together.Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until a cookie dough forms.
Flour a surface and roll out the cookie dough to ¼-inch thick. Cut out Christmas Trees with a Christmas tree cookie cutter. Place on prepared baking sheets, space at least 1 inch apart.
Bake for 11 minutes or until lightly browned on bottoms. (If you're baking at high altitude, be sure to check the Notes at the bottom of the recipe for high altitude baking instructions).
Step 2: Make the Icing
To make the icing: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar and water. Mix on low until combined and then speed up to mixer to high for 1 minute or until light and fluffy.
Split the frosting in six bowls. Add 50 grams in one bowl and add the Dutch cocoa, stir to combine into a chocolate frosting. Transfer to a piping bag with with Ateco tip #56.
In two bowls, add 222 grams of frosting to each bowl. In one of the bowls add ½ teaspoon ColorKitchen Green Dye and in the other add 2 teaspoon ColorKitchen Green Dye. Stir both to combine completely. Transfer the light green frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #30. And transfer the dark green frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #133.
In the last three bowls, add 171 grams of frosting in each. In one of the bowls, add just a pinch of ColorKitchen Blue Dye and stir to combine completely. For another bowl add just a pinch ColorKitchen Pink Dye and stir to combine completely. You want these to be very light and pastel. Leave one frosting white.
Transfer the white frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #96. Transfer the blue frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #21. And transfer the pink frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #34.
Step 3: Decorate Cookies
Pipe different designs on each tree! Try doing all sorts of things to make them different and unique.
Sprinkle with ColorKitchen Christmas Tree Sprinkles or fine shredded coconut to make them look snowy!
Recipe FAQ's
Yes, just add ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt to the cookie dough.
Yes, feel free to use any holiday cutter you like!
I use plant based dyes that are powders, they work so well and create beautiful and colorful cookies with no artificial dyes needed!
Yes, I tested these with Namaste Organic Perfect Flour Blend. You can replace the all purpose flour for 270 grams (1 ¾ cups) of that gluten free flour blend. If you use another blend, I don't know how they will turn out.
Incorrect measuring or your eggs were too large. I always recommend using a digital food scale for the best results. You can add a little more flour or chill the dough if you are having issues rolling it out.
This one doesn't require chilling, but you can chill it if you are having issues rolling the dough out.
Incorrect measuring or your eggs were too large, which caused the ratio of wet ingredients to dry ingredients to be off.
If your cookies are spreading too much, the eggs could have been too large. You can weigh eggs to ensure you get the right amount. This recipe calls for 2 large eggs, which is 100 grams. If you have extra, store in an airtight container and use for breakfast. You can also chill sugar cookie dough to help it from spreading out.
These are a soft sugar cookie, so they will be slightly crisp more around the edges and soft in the center.
Yes, the cookies will be soft immediately after coming out of the oven. Let them cool completely on the baking sheets before frosting.
No, do not do this as the frosting will just melt into the cookies. Be sure to let cookies cool completely before frosting.
Store in an airtight container so they don't dry out. These are best when eaten the day they are made, otherwise storing them could ruin their decoration. You can place parchment paper between each one if you need to store for freshness, but it can damage the buttercream design. The fridge could help if you place cookies in the fridge first to harden the buttercream more, then store.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
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Tree Sugar Cookies Without Artificial Colors
Equipment
- Digital Food Scale
- Stand Mixer
- Half Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper Sheets
- Rolling Pin
- Christmas Tree Cookie Cutter
- Ateco Tips #56, 30, 133, 96, 21, 34
Ingredients
Dough
- 113 grams salted butter (softened)
- 198 grams cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 255 grams all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Icing
- 339 grams salted butter (softened)
- 708 grams powdered sugar (sifted)
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 ½ teaspoons ColorKitchen Green Dye
- 4 grams Dutch cocoa powder
- a pinch ColorKitchen Pink Dye
- a pinch ColorKitchen Blue Dye
Toppings
- ColorKitchen Christmas Tree Sprinkles
- unsweetened fine shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, cane sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix on low until all ingredients are combined and there’s no butter chunks. Add the eggs and mix just slightly.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, cloves, baking powder and salt and whisk together.Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until a cookie dough forms.
- Flour a surface and roll out the cookie dough to ¼-inch thick. Cut out Christmas Trees with a Christmas Tree cookie cutter. Place on prepared baking sheets, space at least 1 inch apart.
- Bake for 11 minutes or until lightly browned on bottoms.
- To make the icing: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar and water. Mix on low until combined and then speed up to mixer to high for 1 minute or until light and fluffy.
- Split the frosting in six bowls. Add 50 grams in one bowl and add the Dutch cocoa, stir to combine into a chocolate frosting. Transfer to a piping bag with with Ateco tip #56.
- In two bowls, add 222 grams of frosting to each bowl. In one of the bowls add ½ teaspoon ColorKitchen Green Dye and in the other add 2 teaspoon ColorKitchen Green Dye. Stir both to combine completely. Transfer the light green frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #30. And transfer the dark green frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #133.
- In the last three bowls, add 171 grams of frosting in each. In one of the bowls, add just a pinch of ColorKitchen Blue Dye and stir to combine completely. In another bowl add just a pinch ColorKitchen Pink Dye and stir to combine completely. You want these to be very light and pastel. Leave one frosting white.
- Transfer the white frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #96. Transfer the blue frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #21. And transfer the pink frosting to a piping bag with Ateco tip #34.
- Pipe different designs on each tree! Try doing all sorts of things to make them different and unique. Sprinkle with ColorKitchen Christmas Tree Sprinkles or fine shredded coconut to make them look snowy!
- Store in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
Notes
- Always weigh ingredients for the best results.
- If you don't want to cut out the cookies, you can simply roll them into balls (flatten slightly) and just frost them any way you like!
- I use different colors to make pink trees, green trees, white trees, and even blue trees, but you can use just all one color if you prefer.
- You can use different cookie cutters to make different holiday shapes if you like.
- Because these cookies are decorated with buttercream, they are best made and eaten the same day. You can store them in an airtight container but the decorated frosting may not hold it's shape as this is buttercream, not royal icing.
- These need to be stored in an airtight container so they stay soft. I recommend placing a piece of parchment paper in between cookies if you plan to store them.
- Gluten Free — Replace the organic flour for 270 grams (1 ¾ cups) gluten free flour blend.
- High Altitude — Bake at 375°F for 8 minutes or until lightly browned on bottoms.
Nutrition
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