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Dessert

Pat Egan's Christmas Tree Cookies

Cookies shaped like Christmas trees, made from a sweet dough with almond extract and green sugar crystals.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pat Egan's Christmas Tree Cookies

Oven350°F (175°C)
Timeabout 10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Put flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, almond extract and egg into a large bowl of an electric mixer.

  2. Mix together, using low speed. Dough will be crumbly.

  3. Then knead dough with hands until mixture holds together.

  4. Remove 1/3 cup of the dough; wrap and refrigerate.

  5. Divide remaining dough in thirds.

Shape the logs

  1. Using hands, roll each portion into a 6‑inch log.

  2. Put sugar crystals on a sheet of wax paper. Roll each log in the sugar crystals to coat well.

  3. Use the wax paper as a guide to press in crystals.

  4. Shape each log into a triangle. Press gently on wax paper to give three sharp corners.

  5. Make sure two sides are longer than the third side.

  6. Wrap each log well.

  7. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or until dough is firm enough to slice.

Bake and serve

  1. Heat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Slice logs crosswise into ¼‑inch slices.

  3. Place slices about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

  4. Shape about ½ teaspoon of the reserved dough into a tree trunk for each cookie. Attach the trunk to the bottom underside of each cookie.

  5. Sprinkle lightly with candy decorations, if desired.

  6. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

  7. Carefully remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

691Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cookie shape as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the dough hold together.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown lightly in the oven.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise slightly and stay tender.

The step that matters

Chill the logs until firm. Cold dough holds its shape when sliced; soft, warm dough smears and spreads, blurring the triangular tree shape before baking.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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