Christmas Tree Chocolate Brownies!
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Chocolatey & delicious triple chocolate brownies in the shape of Christmas trees – perfect for the festive season!
Christmas baking
As it’s soooo close to Christmas this year now I am SUPER excited. All my presents are wrapped, the house is decorated, and everyone is in such a lovely mood (apart from drivers.) and my Christmas baking is no closer to stopping.
Honestly, I pretty much bake from the first day of November, up until New Years Eve with all things festive and delicious. I decided to post a Christmas brownie recipe, but decided that a simple triple chocolate brownie would be ideal – one that EVERYONE will love and adore – and then make it Christmassy of course.
Brownies
I based the recipe around the base recipe of my triple chocolate brownies & chocolate orange brownies as they are both so lovely – making it simply chocolatey was easy enough – and the recipe is still yet to fail me. Don’t fix what isn’t broken, right?
- Butter – For brownies I can float between block butter or a baking spread, depends what I have in the fridge
- Chocolate – Always use dark chocolate for a brownie mixture – you need the cocoa content for best results. I use and recommend 70%+ cocoa content. I use this dark chocolate
- Eggs – I tend to use medium eggs, so I use four, but if you have large, use three.
- Sugar – I like using light brown soft sugar, as well as caster sugar, and either work well here.
- Flour – ALWAYS use plain flour, you don’t want any raising agents in brownies.
- Cocoa – I use strong cocoa powder (100%!) but you can use any good quality cocoa powder. Try to avoid hot chocolate powder
Decoration
I have seen decorations like these all over the place recently – so no, I didn’t think this idea up! I like to think I put my own twist on it, especially using my deliciously yummy recipe. I used some deliciously smooth buttercream coloured green as the colour against the brownies contrasts perfectly. I then used some Christmassy sprinkles that remind me off Christmas tree baubles finished off with a yellow M&M (or a Smartie) to resemble a star – all cute and festive and perfect.
I find it easier to get the tray out of the tin once it has baked, set and cooled and onto a large chopping board. I cut the tray in half, and then I cut 10 triangles out of the traybake. There are four little off cuts, but they are chef perks and you should basically just eat them.
I tend to push the base of the candy cane in first, and then pipe the green on top. I used a 2d closed star piping tip for the green and then some more bauble like sprinkles as they are cute and colourful. You can buy some moulds that will make a triangle shape for your brownie anyway, but using a square tray works for me.
Adaptations
After having a look on Pinterest recently, I have seen people use Cadburys chocolate fingers as the stumps/trunks, or anything else tasty. I use candy canes because I adore the mintiness, but this isn’t to everyone’s tastes.
Something such as Cadbury’s Flakes would probably be a smidge too delicate, but anything else you fancy will do. With one batch, I even used a liquorice flyer style sweet as the trunk part – I am not joking when I say you can really make these your own!
You can also flavour the bake in different ways by using orange, almond, lemon, or whatever you fancy – it’s up to you!
Tips & Tricks
For me, baking at Christmas time is a must. However, I completely understand its a very stressful time of year for a lot of families be it with work, family, or just because you love a last minute panic. Check out some of my other Christmas recipes for a stress free but yummy festive period.
- I use this 2d closed star piping tip
- I use this green food colouring
- I use this 9″ square tin
- I use these large piping bags
- These will last for 3-4+ days in the fridge or room temp
- These will freeze for 3+ months
Christmas Tree Brownies!
Ingredients
Brownies
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 200 g dark chocolate
- 4 medium eggs (or 3 large)
- 275 g caster sugar
- 100 g plain flour
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 100 g milk chocolate chips
- 100 g white chocolate chips
Decorations
- 10 candy canes
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 200 g icing sugar
- Green food colouring
- Sprinkles
- Sweets
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan and line a 9″ Square baking tray with parchment paper.
- Melt together the butter, and dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water, on the microwave for 1-2 minutes until melted. Leave to the side to cool to room temperature!
- Using an electric whisk/stand mixer, whisk together the eggs & caster sugar for a few minutes until the colour has turned pale, is very mousse-like, and is double the original volume of the amount of eggs + sugar! You will know it's done because when you lift the whisk up out of the mix it should leave a trail for a couple of seconds before disappearing!
- When whisked, pour the cooled chocolate mixture over eggs and fold together carefully. It might take some time, but be patient – you don’t want to knock out the air you made up on the previous step!
- Once completely combined, sift the cocoa powder and plain flour on top of the chocolate mix and then fold together again – still be careful to not knock out the air!
- Once combined well, fold through the chocolate chips and pour into the prepared tin – bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes! Once baked, leave to cool in the tin completely.
- Once cooled, cut the brownies into the tree shapes – I cut the tray in half, and then triangle the two halves – and eat all the offcuts. Carefully insert the candy cane sticks into the base of the brownies (like shown!)
- Cream together the butter and icing sugar to create a delicious buttercream
- Add some green food colouring until you get to your desired decoration colour!
- Transfer to a large piping bag with your chosen piping tip (I used a 2D closed star tip!) and pipe some zigzag lines on to your brownies
- Add some bauble sprinkles and sweets or whatever you are using and dont forget your yellow star (I used an M&M) at the top of the brownie. Enjoy!
Notes
- I used regular candy canes and snapped the tops off so that I just used the straight part – I used the off cuts of the candy canes in my Christmas bark
- These will last in an airtight container for 1 week, but will make excellent little gifts this Christmas!
- This recipe was originally based on BBC Good Food recipe with my own changes and decoration!
- I used this green food colouring!
- I used these piping bags!
- I used this piping tip!
ENJOY!
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J x
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Hi if I’m using an 8×8 tin would the ingredients be less or can I use the same amount?
Thanks!
The volume difference is about 1/5 so it’s hard to reduce the recipe by that amount. The brownies may take longer to bake and be a little gooey in the middle in the smaller tin!
I baked these today and they were absolutely delicious. For anyone who loves chocolate you are going to love them. They are wonderfully moist, soft and chewy as a brownie should be. I think I may make more and give them as gifts this year to spread the joy.
I use this as my go to brownie recipe. I’ve baked it numerous times and it never fails. Whenever I take the brownies in to work or for an event I am asked to share the recipe.
Baked these over the weekend and have been told by everyone who had one that they are the best brownies ever!! Thank you Jane! 🙂
Hi Jane! Made these this morning, cooked them for 30 minutes (didn’t do them any longer because I didn’t want to overcook them)… they look really gooey, did I bake them for long enough? x
That means they needed slightly longer x
Hi Jane, I Love this recipe (in-fact I haven’t found a recipe of yours that isn’t good!) and these are such a fab idea. I was wondering if you have made a smaller batch and if so what amounts for ingredients did you use?
Many thanks
A half batch (use two medium eggs) would fit a 7″ square, but I don’t ever make a half batch really!
Hi Jane,
I’m planning on making these next weekend, super excited – How do you get 10 triangles from the tray? I’ve been trying to suss it out following your instructions, but I just cant seem to get it right😆
Thank you so much!
I cut the tray in half, and then just cut the triangles out! Had little off cuts at the ends x
AMAZING! The most delicious brownie recipe ever – So delicious, a proper fudgey/not dry at all brownie. I did have to cook for around 45minutes , but it was so worth it!
Thank you!! They were a hit with the family too!
I used a 9″ cake round instead and sliced it like you would a pizza to get triangles. The bottoms of the “trees” come out slightly curved this way but if that bothers you, you can always level off the bottom and scoff the offcut! 😁
Hi Jane, can I use a round cake tin and cut them like you would a pizza to try this shape?
You can do – typically a square tin is equal to a round tin, one inch bigger in size (so as this recipe uses a 9″ square tin, you would ideally use a 10″ round). Any smaller will cause the brownies to be deeper/change the baking time! x
Could these be frozen? 🙂
Yes!!
Amazing thanks! Would i need to freeze without the decoration? Or would it freeze ok? 🙂
It should be fine with, but they might get knocked about a bit so without is better! x
Used this in school with my 7 year olds to make togo home at Christmas and did numeracy work multiplying by 3 to make 30. They were easy to make and 3 lots came out great. Not sure what candy melts are, and none in supermarket in Bangor, North Wales! Used icing and mixed with green food colouring gel and used chocolate stars because getting 30 yellow sweets was also hard! Making them again for the kids for new years eve party. I left them in the tin to cool fully and even left one batch overnight which made them easy to cut. Left over bits were stunning warmed in micro with ice cream!!
What dark chocolate do you use in your brownies please? Thank you!!
I use either Callebaut, or supermarket own dark chocolate if I’ve run out. At least 70%, but ideally 80%! x
Hi Jane
I love your recipes and if I need to bake anything or make a dessert I head straight over to your website to make something. I made these Christmas tree brownies as gifts for my friends and family this Christmas. I did not have any candy melts and tried to use while chocolate and green food colouring. I melted the white chocolate over a pan of boiling water and then let it cool a little and added some green food colouring. This made the shire chocolate go really stiff and ended up in a ball that I couldn’t pipe. I’m not sure if I did something wrong. In the end I ended up just making some green buttercream and piped that on but it didn’t really have the same effect. Would you have any advice for the next time I make them? (Probably next Christmas!)
Thanks x
It depends entirely on what colouring you used – supermarket brands aren’t the best for mixing in with chocolate as they’re so watery and just not good quality at all so I recommend sugar flair or progel which you can buy online or at Hobbycraft!