It’s that time of year! Did you feel something in the air change while you were putting your leftover turkey in the fridge last week? That Christmas spirit came sneaking in like a ninja in the night at our house, and my kiddos woke up to Elf on the Shelf, snowmen figurines, and holiday lights everywhere! And best of all, they woke up to Christmas cookies! There’s no such thing as too early a start to Christmas cookie season, in my opinion. I thought I’d start this year off with cookie designs that anyone could make in just an hour or two- and while they look high effort, they really aren’t that bad all. And because you can make two different designs- rustic holly and garland green- with with same colors, people will be twice as impressed!
You’ll only need a few supplies and colors for these cookies, which is something I’m always a fan of. The holidays are complicated enough already!
Materials Needed for Christmas Wreath Sugar Cookies
- Sugar cookies, baked and cooled. Find my favorite recipe at the bottom of this post or explained in detail here! For Christmas cookies, I sometimes swap out the almond extract in the recipe for the same amount of peppermint extract. It’s totally your call!
- Royal icing in several colors. My recipe is at the bottom of this post, or visit here if you’re a newbie! I like using Americolor food gels, found here at Amazon.
- Brown, at a piping consistency and #1 & #2 tips
- Red, at a piping consistency and a #1 tip
- Dark Green, at a piping consistency and a small leaf tip
- Green, at a piping consistency and small leaf tip
- A wreath/donut cookie cutter. The one I used in this post is available here at Amazon.
- Cookie etching needle, found in this simple toolkit on Amazon.
- Counter top fan to speed drying times (optional but recommended- if you don’t use one, double the drying times).
With all our supplies in hand, let’s get our greenery on! I actually made these in real time on my Facebook page, which you should go ahead and ‘like’ if you need all the Christmas cookie updates as soon as they post!
We’ll tackle the rustic holly wreath first. When your cookies are completely cool, use your brown piping icing and a #2 tip to make some lines around one edge of the cookie, and another short set of lines on the other side. They don’t have to be perfect, remember that we’re going for a rustic look! Once you’ve gotten those done, go back with the same brown but a #1 decorating tip and cross hatch across a few areas of brown lines. Cross hatching is really easy- make an ‘x’ shape, and then go back and forth diagonally, top left to bottom right, then top right to bottom left.
Next, grab your ‘regular’ green icing and a #1 tip. At random spots, make some ‘pine needle’ embellishments. I made these by making ‘v’ shapes right next to each other- so easy! Some should overlap a bit of the brown piping work that we’ve already done. Now let everything harden up for about half an hour under a counter top fan.
When you’re ready to move on, use your dark green icing (I use Americolor’s ‘Forest Green’) and a small leaf tip. Pipe dark green leaves in random spots all the way around the leaf, making sure that they generally all point in the same direction. It looks nice if you angle a few here and there, but you want all the points going the same way. Once you’re happy with that, put the leaf tip on the ‘regular’ green icing and pipe a few more leaves to fill in more space. Then swap the leaf tip for a #1 and pipe a few more pine needle embellishments here and there. Make sure to keep some of the brown wreath exposed, particularly the part you crosshatched earlier. Give the cookies another half hour under the fan to prevent color bleeding.
And now it’s time for the holly berries! Using your red icing and a #1 tip, pipe small bunches of berries and single berries all over the wreath, filling in any spots that are still bare and also popping a few on top of the leaves and wreath itself. You did it!
Let’s move on to the green garland wreath. Folks, it doesn’t get much easier than this. I favor the dark green for this design, but you can reverse the colors if you prefer. Using your preferred green and a small leaf tip, cover almost the entire wreath shape with leaves. Just like before, keep them all pointing in the same direction, but you can help it look more ‘natural’ by angling a few towards the outside or inside of the wreath. Allow the cookies half an hour to harden under the fan.
Now swap the tip to your regular green color and pipe some more leaves into the empty spaces and a few on top of the leaves you’ve already made.
We’re already at the final step! Pick up your brown piping icing and a #1 tip, and pipe little acorns (or maybe being festive, we’ll say chestnuts!) all over, taking care to make sure and put some in any open spots. In the words of my favorite show, Nailed It, “ya done!”.
See? I told you that these were fast and easy! What a nice way to ease into the holiday season. If you’re wondering what I did with all the dough ‘holes’ from the middle of the wreaths, you better believe I baked them and you’ll see them again soon! Until then, make sure to let me know how everything worked out for you in the comments section below, or on my Facebook page! Let me be one of the first to wish you a Happy Holidays 2020, and that you stay happy, stay safe, and stay baking!
Foolproof Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In bowl, mix together 3 cups of the flour and baking power. Set aside.
- In separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the extracts and the egg and beat until combined.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Dough will be crumbly.
- Press dough together with hands, and roll out on a well-floured surface. Cut shapes and place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.
- Refrigerate baking sheet for at least 10 minutes.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, remove when cookie edges are just barely golden. Allow several minutes to cool on sheet before moving cookies to a rack.
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 Tbsp meringue powder
- 4 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar sifted
- 1/2 tsp Karo syrup (optional)
- 1/8 tsp clear flavored extract (optional)
Instructions
- Combine water and meringue powder in a bowl and beat with mixer until frothy.
- Sift powdered sugar into the same bowl and mix to combine
- Add syrup and extract if desired
- Beat the icing for 4-5 minutes until it is glossy and holds a peak if the beater is turned upside down
Medium Consistency
- Continue to add water ½ Tbsp at a time until at desired consistency (icing should disappear into itself in about 5 seconds after being dripped back into the mixing bowl).
Flooding Consistency
- Continue to add water ½ Tbsp at a time until at desired consistency (icing should disappear into itself in about 3 seconds after being dripped back into the mixing bowl).
[…] Please don’t skip this step, bakers. I know sometimes time is short, but this dough is really sticky and rolling it into balls will just be an exercise in frustration if you skip the refrigeration step. If you know the day you want to bake them has a tight timeline, go ahead and make this dough the day before and let it sit, wrapped in plastic wrap, overnight. I’ve done this before and it works beautifully. But please, give your dough at least an hour of chill time in the refrigerator before baking. Your sanity will thank you! If you want a great, no-refrigeration holiday cookie dough project, try my holiday wreath cookies here! […]