How to Make Gingerbread Wreath Cookies
These adorable wreath cookies are a great new way to decorate gingerbread for gifts or natural Christmas decor! For 12 cookies, I used about 1-1/2 cups of tinted green icing, and about 1/4 cup of tinted red icing.
Ingredients
- Recipe ingredients (see notes for recommendations)
- Round cookie cutters or a donut cutter
- Rolling pin
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- 2 12" piping bags
- 1 #2 or #3 round piping tips I used #3 for this tutorial
- 1 Leaf piping tip I used #67 for this tutorial
- 2 Couplers optional
- 2 Spatulas
- 2 Mixing bowls
- Toothpicks
- 2 red and green Gel food colouring
- 1 Clean cloth
Instructions
Make the Cookies
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First, bake the cookies. I made this gingerbread recipe for this tutorial. To make the wreath shapes, you will need 2 circle cookie cutters, one large (about 3"-4") and one small (about 1"), or to keep it simple, a donut cutter. (I used the two circles, since that's what I had at the time). Cut out large circles for baking, and then the small ones out of the centre of those when they come out of the oven while the cookies are still warm. These will be your wreaths.
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Note: You can cut the small circles before you bake the cookies, but if your dough spreads while it bakes, they might come out a little smaller than pictured in this tutorial. Cutting the centres out while the cookies are warm will ensure that the hole is the right size.
Make the Frosting
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Next, you'll prepare the royal icing according to the recipe instructions. Tint the icing with gel food colouring to the colours of your choice.
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Spoon the icing into piping bags fitted with tips and couplers. For this tutorial, I used a #67 leaf tip with the green icing and a #3 round tip with the red.
Decorate the Cookies
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To decorate the cookies, using a leaf tip, pipe a circle of leaves with the tips facing the centre of the wreath around the edge of the cookie.
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Next, pipe several rows of leaves facing the opposite direction around the centre circle until the entire area of the wreath is covered in green leaves.
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Pipe some red berries on top (and a bow if you like), and allow the cookies to dry completely (at least 3 hours).
Be creative!
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Finally, be creative! Use sprinkles, gold dragees for ornaments, or whatever you want. Have fun with it, and make them your own!
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Tip: When working with royal icing and piping tips, squeeze a bit of icing out of the piping tip so that it drys outside the tip rather than inside. Whatever is exposed to the air will dry completely hard, and quickly!
When you want to use it, break the icing off of the end of the tip and begin piping. If you don't do this, the icing will dry firmly inside of the tip, and you won't be able to pipe anything out.
Recipe Notes
These adorable cookies can be made using homemade gingerbread, sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies, or any other type of flat, rolled cookie. The best kind of icing to use is royal icing.