These Christmas tree brownies are an easy and adorable treat that’s the perfect addition to any holiday gathering. Fudge brownies are decorated with candy canes, frosting and sprinkles for the ultimate treat!
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.
Table of Contents
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!
Quick Tip
If you’d like to prepare these Christmas brownies in advance, you can bake the brownies, cut them into shapes, and freeze them for up to one month before you plan to use them. Simply thaw the brownies, add the decorations and you’re ready to go.
Recipe FAQs
I find it a lot easier to cut brownies when they are cold. Chilled brownies have a firmer texture and are also less likely to stick to the knife.
The easiest way to cut brownies into triangles is to first remove the slab of brownies from the pan, then cut them into four equal sized rows. From there, make diagonal cuts in each row to get 4 triangles per row.
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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.
More Dessert Recipes
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Haystack Cookies
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Funfetti Cookies
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Christmas Tree Brownies Video
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Christmas Tree Brownies
Ingredients
For the brownies:
- cooking spray
- 1/2 cup butter
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
For the decorations:
- 16 small candy canes
- 16 gold star sprinkles or candies
- 1/3 cup rainbow sprinkles
- 2 cups green frosting homemade or store bought, a basic homemade frosting recipe is provided in the notes section
Instructions
For the brownies
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9″x13″ pan with foil and coat with cooking spray.
- Place the butter and chocolate chips into a large bowl. Melt in microwave – heat for 30 second intervals and stir between each interval until butter and chocolate are melted and thoroughly combined.
- Stir in the sugar, then stir in the eggs, one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition.
- Stir in the vanilla extract. Gently fold in the salt and flour.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the brownies comes out clean.
- Cool the brownies to room temperature, then chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Using the edges of the foil, remove the slab of brownie from the pan. Using a sharp knife, cut the brownies into 16 triangles.
For the decorations
- Snap the curved parts off the candy canes and insert the straight parts of the candy canes into the bottom of the brownies.
- Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a plain or star tip, or resealable plastic bag with the tip snipped off. Pipe approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons of frosting onto each brownie.
- Place a star sprinkle at the top of each brownie, then add rainbow sprinkles all over each brownie.
- Serve, or store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to one day.
This is so cute! Perfect for Christmas, I can’t wait to try it!
This is such an amazing idea. So delicious, easy and colorful.
Arent these freaking cute! I love them and they look adorable!
These are so adorable!! Perfect holiday treats!
My son will love to make these! What a fun idea for Christmas! I love to make fun, festive treats like this that my kiddo can help make.
My kids would go nuts over these. I would help them with making them lol!
My husband and I would love to make these. We don’t have any kids but we still adore treats like this.
Those are so cute and look SO simple. I will definitely be making some of these for Christmas !
These photos are so beautiful! And your holiday treats look like perfection.
You can also wrap these individually and give them away to family as a lovely treat for Christmas! I think it’s awesome and it’s easy to make!
Looks like brownies are in these season! It’s awesome because they’re easy to make and they’re a hit with the family! It’s so nice that you made these into Christmas trees!
What a great idea, these looks super festive and yummy! I am so making these for my kiddies!
Oh how cute are these! Making some Christmas tree brownies for my family would be really nice. They definitely sound good.
These brownies looks so festive and yummy. I will have to make some for my son and his buddies
There’s nothing better than brownies that are shaped like Christmas trees! Love how you decorated this one! It’s a lovely treat!
This is an easy enough holiday recipe idea for a treat. I love the idea of making Christmas tree brownies for our Christmas eve family time!
I need to make up a big batch of these for our Christmas dinner. I think everyone is going to love them!
Those are the cutest brownies ever! This is exactly the kind of thing I love to make when the holidays roll around.
I posted the same brownies on my site today! I guess great minds think alike 🙂