Pretty Little Christmas Wreath Cookies

The great thing about decorated cut out cookies is that the sky is the limit when it comes to creating new shapes and designs. I follow some incredible cookie decorators and they're always putting cookie cutters together to make new creations.

I saw wreath cookies similar to these a couple years ago, made out of gingerbread and decorated with royal icing. They looked adorable but tasted horrible. No offense to the bakery that made them; I'm just not a fan of gingerbread or royal icing.

So last year I decided to try recreating these with my Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies and Cookie Icing.

I used this 8-petal flower from a cookie cutter set that had been my grandmother's. The miniature curvy hexagon (or whatever it is you call this shape) came from a set that I got as a gift from a friend.

The two cookie cutters worked perfectly together. The bakery wreaths had a simple circle in the middle, which would work, too. But I really like the look with the curvy hexagon.

I outlined with cookies with royal icing. I often outline simple shapes with my Cookie Icing for Outlining, but for intricate shapes like stars and these wreaths, I find that royal icing works better and doesn't change the taste of the finished cookie.

Then I filled the outlined cookies with Cookie Icing for Filling. If you're new to outlining and filling cookies, I highly recommend reading Bridget Edwards' cookbook, Decorating Cookies. She explains the process incredibly well.

Once the cookies were filled, I placed red confetti circle sprinkles around the wreath and covered the rest of the cookie with green sugar sprinkles.

Ta-da! Pretty Little Christmas Wreath Cookies. If I really wanted to get fancy, I could have added some red fondant bows or other decorations of the sort, but I like to keep things simple.

Merry Christmas!

Pretty Little Christmas Wreath Cookies

Materials

• prepared sugar cookie dough (try these Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies or use your own favorite recipe)
• a 2½-inch flower-shaped cookie cutter (with 6 or 8 petals)
• a 1-inch curvy hexagon cookie cutter OR use a 1-inch circle (mine came in a set like this one)
• royal icing (I use the recipe from Bridget Edwards' blog, Bake at 350; I usually make a half of a batch, since I'm only using it for outlining)
• icing bag and a #3, #4, or #5 round tip
• Cookie Icing for Filling
• squeeze bottle for icing (or use a plastic zipper bag with the corner cut off)
• toothpicks
• red confetti circle sprinkles
• green sugar sprinkles

Directions

1. Roll sugar cookie dough out into 1/4" thickness.
2. Using well-floured cookie cutters, cut flower shapes out of dough.
3. Cut a curvy hexagon out of the center of each flower.
4. Bake cookies according to recipe directions and allow to cool completely.
5. Outline inside and outside of wreath cookies with royal icing, using the round tip.
6. Let royal icing dry. (This doesn't take very long.)
7. Fill royal icing outlines with cookie icing, spreading with toothpick as needed.
8. While cookie icing is still wet, place red confetti sprinkles around the wreath.
9. Immediately top rest of icing with green sugar sprinkles.
10. Let icing dry for a couple hours before handling or packaging cookies.