These pine needle cookies are made with real pine needles for a fresh winter flavor, and are a wonderful way to use foraged pine needles! This recipe makes about 36 cookies.
Finely chop the pine needles (or other edible conifer needles) with a knife or pulse them in a food processor.
Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl.
In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar until it is creamy. Stir in the egg and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients and 3 tablespoons of the chopped pine needles to the wet ingredients and stir until it comes together into a dough. If the dough is sticky you can add a little more flour as needed.
Divide the dough into two halves and roll each one out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper until it’s about 1/4 inch thick.
Place one rolled-out dough on parchment on a sheet pan, then put the second rolled-out dough on parchment on top of the first. Then cover the top dough with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap.
Refrigerate the rolled-out doughs for at least 1-2 hours or overnight.
Once the dough has been chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Pull one rolled-out dough out of the refrigerator.
Use tree shaped cookie cutters to cut the dough into tree shapes (or whatever shapes you like). When you’ve used all the dough you can re-roll the scraps to cut more cookies.
Put the cut out cookies onto the baking sheet with an inch or so in between them. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until the edges are just starting to turn brown.
Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan for several minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
Repeat with the remaining dough until all the cookies are baked.
Optional: Once the cookies have completely cooled ice them and sprinkle them with the remaining cut pine needles or other cookie decorations if desired.
Notes
Any edible conifer needles such as pine, fir, or spruce can be used in these cookies. Be sure to properly identify the tree before using. Yew trees are highly toxic and should not be used.
Some pine needles like Eastern white pine (which is what I used) are very fine and easy to cut with a knife, but others can be tougher and may benefit from a few pulses in a food processor before using.
These cookies are delicious without any icing, but they are also fun to ice and decorate! Let them cool completely before icing. They'd be great with the maple icing I used in my maple cookies or any other icing recipe that you prefer.
I used the white icing mix from King Arthur Flour which is quick and easy to use!
Reserve one tablespoon of the chopped pine needles to use for decorating if you’d like or use any other cookie decorations that you prefer.