These Christmas brownies are a fun holiday activity that is a craft and a treat all in one! You can use your favorite homemade recipe, with a boxed mix or use our cake mix brownies for the base. Dressed up with pretzels, Reese’s and M&Ms you will enjoy making these with your kids.
Among the delightful treats on our tables during this time of year is this cute Christmas brownie. Rich chocolaty goodness adorned with festive decorations and shapes bring warmth and joy to our celebrations. Make this reindeer shape out of these or our cake mix peanut butter brownies. (affiliate links present)
Reindeer Brownies
Chocolate Brownie Cake is known for the rich, fudgy texture and deep cocoa flavor. They serve as the perfect canvas for adding a touch of holiday magic. Whether you prefer dense and chewy or cake-like and light, there’s a chocolate recipe to suit your taste.
What sets these reindeer desserts apart from their everyday counterparts are a few things. You can infuse festive flavors inside or decorate with ingredients to make them look like favorite shapes or characters. Here are some popular ways to add a touch of holiday magic to your pan full;
How do you wrap brownies for Christmas?
These are fun to use as gifts. The best way to keep them fresh but not break apart is to buy tins at The Dollar Store, line with tissue paper or parchment with another piece on top. It won’t keep it airtight and last as long as if you did that but will at least be pretty once gifted and they will likely be eaten immediately anyway so you’ll be good to go.
Ingredients
- 1 box brownies mix, plus ingredients to make batter
- Pretzels
- 1 bag m&ms
- 8 peanut butter cups, or mini versions if using a smaller cookie cutter
- Bag of candy eyes
We show you How to Make Homemade Brownie Mix here to save a bit of money but nowadays a box is usually pretty cheap. There are tons of varieties out there but in this case I would suggest you NOT buy one that has chocolate chips in it. You do want to be able to cut it out into a shape well and this will make it harder.
Can you cut brownies into shapes?
You can!! You will need to wait until they have cooled completely first, and day old is actually better so they keep their shape. Use a paper towel wiped down or sprayed with non stick spray and press down firm, don’t twist. Then lift up.
If you needed something dairy free I also have a recipe for Flaxseed Brownies for you here. They are great and you don’t feel at all that you’re missing out. Once again, skip the chips in that one too. I have only used a 9×13 inch pan so I can cut as many as possible. If you found a smaller cutter you could fit more with mini peanut butter cups.
In the case that you wanted them thicker you could make two pouches and bake longer. Typically I will make mine ooey gooey so you almost have to scoop them out, but not in this case. You need them a bit firmer to stay together for serving purposes.
How to Make Christmas Tree Brownies
If you wanted to make trees instead of reindeer you totally could. You wouldn’t even need a cookie cutter for this unless you wanted a perfect triangle. Instead you could make them similar to our No Cookie Cutter Christmas Tree Cookies. Just slice straight at a diagonal to get triangles.
- Continue slicing at angles to get a bunch of triangle Two Bite Brownies
- Then slide a straight candy cane stick into the bottom
- Drizzle thin white frosting at a zig zag from the top to the bottom
- Gently press different colored M&Ms on that line to look like colored lights!
You can go on and on with the other shapes you could make. Look at the cookie cutters offered online or in your cupboard and get creative with your kids! The biggest tip is to make sure after you bake the brownies you allow them to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack. This will take a good 30 minutes.
If you remove the brownies from pan before that time they will fall apart. Once they are at room temperature press into them firmly the shape you want.
How to Make Brownies Look Like Rudolph
You just need a reindeer cookie cutter to make these. You could use anything to make the antlers but pretzels broken in half work quite well. Edible eyes are easy to find in the baking aisle and the nose here is just a peanut butter cup with red candy in the center.
For a smaller batch you can use a loaf pan and make our Brownie Bread. Then push out shapes with 1 per slice. To check whether they are done enough, with a toothpick inserted it should come out completely clean. With cooking spray inside they should then be able to be lifted out easily from the baking pan.
- You could add crushed melted candy canes made into shapes or peppermint extract into the batter to add a refreshing minty twist to your brownies. The combination of chocolate and peppermint is a classic holiday pairing.
- Incorporate the creamy, spiced flavors of eggnog into your brownie batter. Nutmeg and a dash of rum extract can enhance the festive eggnog taste.
- Spice up your brownies with a hint of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves to capture the essence of gingerbread cookies. A drizzle of cream cheese frosting or white chocolate completes the experience.
If you wanted to make these the day before just bake, cool and cover pan with foil leaving it on the counter. Then cut and decorate the next day while enjoying our free Reindeer Coloring Pages.
The easiest thing to do is just make your own baked treat but use a tree or Rudolph cookie cutter to make your brownies or cake pieces into Christmas shapes. Another idea is to bake cupcakes, frost when cool and use red and green sprinkles or an edible candy can be placed on top too.
Christmas Brownies
Equipment
- 1 9×13 pan
- 1 Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 box brownies mix, plus ingredients to make batter
- 1 c pretzels
- 1 bag m&ms
- 8 peanut butter cups, or mini versions if using a smaller cookie cutter
- candy eyes
Instructions
- * Can line pan with parchment paper lengthwise to be able to lift out easily once cooled and transfer cut pieces easier vs. lifting out of pan.
- Prepare boxed brownie mix according to instructions, be careful not to over-bake but stiff enough to lift out. I used a 9 x13 pan to best fit my cookie cutter and baked for 34 minutes. Once they are done baking allow brownies to cool.
- Use cookie cutter to cut out reindeer brownies, make sure cookie cutter goes through all the way through the bottom of the brownies. Remove reindeer brownies from the pan.
- Break pretzels apart to form antlers, place eye balls and peanut butter cup on face and top with a red m&m for the nose. Press them in so they stick.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
