You can never have enough festive Christmas recipes, especially when it comes to sweets. When I’m entertaining, I offer options such as reindeer chow, candy cane hearts, eggnog cake and these fun Christmas brownies. The holidays are almost here, and I’m celebrating with these fun and festive Christmas tree brownies! People can’t help but smile when they see these colorful treats, and the best part is, these brownies taste as good as they look! We’ve got homemade brownies, green tinted frosting, candy canes and rainbow sprinkles, all hallmarks of an awesome holiday recipe. Best of all, these Christmas brownies are actually super easy to make, and the brownies only use a single bowl.
Christmas Tree Brownies Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need butter, semisweet chocolate chips, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, all purpose flour, green frosting, rainbow sprinkles, star sprinkles and candy canes.
how do You Make Christmas Tree Brownies?
Preheat the oven, and line a baking dish with foil and coat it with cooking spray. Melt the butter and chocolate chips in the microwave. Stir in the sugar and eggs. Add the vanilla extract and then fold in the salt and flour. Pour the batter into the pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the brownies to room temperature, then chill them in the fridge. Remove the brownies from the pan with the edges of the foil, and use a sharp knife to cut the brownies into triangles. Snap off the curved parts of the candy canes, and insert the straight section of the candy cane into the bottom of the triangles. Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a star tip, and frost each brownie. Place a star sprinkle at the top of each brownie, then add rainbow sprinkles all over each brownie. Finally, serve and enjoy!
Tips For The Perfect Dessert
I bake my brownies in a 9″x13″ pan for this recipe. You’ll end up with a slab of brownie that’s perfect for cutting into triangles to make Christmas trees. The brownies will be easier to cut if you chill them first. You will have a few leftover scraps as you cut your brownies into tree shapes, my kids wait impatiently to snatch those up! You can make your brownie trees as big or as small as you like; I typically cut my trees so that they’re about 3 inches long. You can either make your own buttercream frosting, or buy a can of frosting for this recipe. During the holidays many stores sell frosting that’s already dyed green, you can pick that up, or add some food color to a can of white frosting. I’ve also included a simple buttercream recipe in the recipe notes. I use a piping bag with a closed star tip to pipe the Christmas tree design. If you don’t have a piping bag, simply load some frosting into a gallon sized resealable bag and snip one of the corners to create a makeshift piping bag. I like the design that the star tip provides, but if you pipe straight from a resealable bag it will still look festive!
Flavor Variations
These brownies are fabulous as-is, but you can easily customize some of the ingredients to suit your tastes.
Brownies: Feel free to add up to 1/2 cup of extras to the brownie batter. Some great options include toffee bits, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips or toasted coconut. Be aware that the brownies may not cut quite as nicely if you add extra ingredients. Frosting: You can skip the frosting and instead dip the top of each brownie into melted green candy melts for a different look and flavor. You can also just drizzle candy melts over the top. This is a good option for when you need to transport the brownies, as the candy melts will harden and you will not need to worry about smearing soft frosting. Sprinkles: I typically go with rainbow non pareil sprinkles because I think they resemble holiday lights. You really can use any type of sprinkle you like, in either rainbow colors or Christmas colors. Candy Canes: I used standard peppermint candy canes here, but they make so many other flavors of candy canes these days. Feel free to use your favorite. Another option is to use long tootsie rolls, or sticks of KitKat candy to make the tree trunks.
The great thing about these brownies is that they happen to taste as good as they look! They’re on my table for Christmas ever year.
Christmas Tree Brownies Video
