Christmas Tree Brownies
Get festive with some chocolate and sprinkles with these Christmas Tree Brownies! These can be made with a pan of boxed brownies, or my favorite homemade recipe. They are such a fun holiday activity for kids!
These days, I feel like we are constantly being thrown ideas at us on how to make the holiday season as magical as possible for ourselves and our kids. Make THIS craft! Have a perfectly decorated house! Make a bajillion cookies and don't forget the homemade gifts for teachers and snacks ready for any unexpected guests! So I want to be clear. I am NOT saying you should make these with your kids to try and have a perfect holiday season. What I'm saying, is you should make these Christmas Tree Brownies if you *happen* to be craving chocolate (it IS the most stressful time of the year, after all) and you want to occupy your kids for a solid 15 minutes over winter break. You can get behind that, right?
Ingredients in Christmas Tree Brownies
You'll need either:
- A boxed mix of brownies (I LOVE Ghirardelli)
OR
- Unsalted Butter
- Granulated Sugar
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- Salt
- Vanilla
- Eggs
- Flour
- Sprinkles - for decorating!
- Frosting - for decorating!
Homemade or Boxed Brownies
Honestly, these can be as simple or as homemade as you want them to be. I almost made them with a boxed mix but I didn't have the vegetable oil, so I used my go-to brownie recipe which, I promise you is SO SO easy. I will never make a brownie recipe that has to melt chocolate - it's such a pain! I'm team cocoa powder all. the. way.
Once you make the brownies, let them chill all the way before you start decorating. I would actually bake the brownies a day in advance, if you have the time. Once the brownies are cooled, cut them into tree shaped triangles. The triangle shape allows for not much (if any!) of the brownie to be wasted, which is always nice. After you cut the trees, decorate! I used store-bought tubes of frosting that came with a piping star tip, which made the prep for decorating super easy. I also bought some cute special sprinkles to decorate the trees with, but any festive sprinkles will do.
To finish them off, I used candy canes as the trunks of the trees. As a peppermint lover, I really enjoyed this flavoring in a couple of the bites!
Of course, the most fun was eating the Christmas Tree Brownies! We delivered some to our neighbors, and enjoyed the rest ourselves at home.
Like this recipe? Check these out, too!
Christmas Rice Krispie Truffles
Christmas Tree Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups unsweeteend cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Decorations:
- Piping Icing green
- Festive Sprinkles
- Candy Canes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- Line a 9x13" pan with parchment paper or foil.
- In a medium saucepan, add the butter, sugar, and cocoa powder over medium-low heat. Cook until the butter is melted and the mixture is combined. It won't look completely smooth and that's fine.
- Remove from heat and add in salt and vanilla. Let cool for a few minutes.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each one.
- Add the flour and stir until well combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, until the edges look done and the center still appears slightly underbaked. They will set up as they cool!
- Cool completely. I found best luck cutting mine after they had been cooled and then placed in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
- Cut the brownies into tree shaped triangles. I cut the 9x13" pan into thirds the long way and then cut the triangles from each strip. You can do this by cutting them right side up and upside down, so you aren't wasting any brownie.
- Decorate! Use piping icing and sprinkles to decorate the trees and then break candy canes into ~2" segments to make tree trunks.
- Enjoy!
