Christmas Wreath Shortbread Cookies (2024)

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Beautiful, easy and delicious, these buttery Christmas Wreath Shortbread Cookies are a one-bowl, no-mixer recipe with an easy, fun decorating technique.

Scott says my kitchen's been looking like Mrs. Claus' workshop for the past week as I've been working on these Christmas Wreath Shortbread Cookies! There's been butter softening on the counter, various shaped cookie cutters strewn here and there, sprinkles in shades of green, red, pink and white dotting the counters (and floors) and lots of cutout cookies chilling in the fridge.

Oh, then there's been me, with flour (or powdered sugar) on my nose, cheeks, sleeves, front, pants... everywhere! But it's been fun and I'm happy to introduce you to these delicious and easy Christmas Wreath Shortbread Cookies.

Perfect Shortbread Dough

The dough recipe for these cookies is nothing new. It's the same recipe I've been using for years to make my shortbread cookies (with little tweaks here and there). I love this recipe for a number of reasons:

• It's a one-bowl, no-mixer recipe. You don't have to pull out any special equipment and don't dirty a lot of dishes.
• You can stir up the dough with just a few simple ingredients in less than 5 minutes.
• The dough doesn't need to be chilled before rolling. I find that chilled dough can be difficult to roll if too cold or not cold enough. It seems you have to find the perfect balance.
• Rerolling the dough doesn't alter the texture or flavor. Some cookie doughs get tough or loses some flavor when the dough is rolled the second or third time.
• The cookies don't spread in the oven so they keep the same pretty shape as when you cut them. (Check out the picture below to see how beautifully they keep their shape.)
• Cutout cookies can be chilled for up to 24 hours if you're not ready to bake right away.
• The unbaked and baked cookies can be frozen until you're ready to bake.

Christmas Wreath Shortbread CookiesTutorial

The saying goes that "a picture is worth a thousand words", so we took some process shots to show you exactly how these cookies are made and decorated.

• • Once the simple, 4-ingredient dough is stirred together, it's time to roll (no need to chill at this point). The dough should be rolled ¼-inch thick. That's just the right thickness to grasp when dipping, yet thin enough to stay crisp and tasty. I'm not the best at rolling dough consistently so I absolutely love this magical little rolling pin I discovered several years ago.

• • It has removable rings that enable you to roll dough to a very consistent thickness. (You can also use it as a normal rolling pin by unscrewing the rings.)

• • Once the dough is rolled out, you'll need two scalloped round cookie cutters (one larger and one smaller) to cut the wreaths. I really likethis set of seven nested cutters and alsothis scalloped set of 6 cutters. To keep a nice shape for your wreaths, cut out the larger circles first, slip a spatula underneath and transfer them to your baking pan.

• • Choose whichever size wreaths and cut out centers you want. Have fun with different shaped cutters. As you can see in the picture below, there are lots of possibilities for the shape of both the outer edge and the inner center of these cookies, depending on the cutters you choose.

• • Once the circles are on the baking sheet, use a smaller cutter to cut the centers. To keep the wreaths' pretty shape, leave the centers in place and chill cookies for an hour (up to 24 hours). Once cookies are chilled, you can slip your finger underneath and easily push out the centers. Bake the centers for pretty little bite-size cookies.

• • Bake the cookies until they're just starting to turn golden at the edges then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The dip, drip and flip decorating technique

• • Ready to decorate? I call this my "Dip, Drip and Flip" icing technique. Prepare the icing as directed and transfer it to a shallow bowl that's slightly larger than your cookie wreaths. Add 4 drops of green food color. I use 2 drops of Wilton Primary Green and 2 drops of Wilton Pastel green. Swirl it all together with a toothpick. Set an empty bowl nearby for your "drip bowl".

• • Hold a cooled, baked cookie in your hand facing down then dip it into the icing. Make sure all the edges of the top surface of the cookie come in contact with the icing. Pull straight up then over to the drip bowl. Allow the excess icing to drip for 15-20 seconds. You can gently shake the cookie while upside down to get excess frosting off the cookie before turning it right side up.

• • Flip it over and admire your beautiful work of art!
  • Give it a little sprinkle of colorful nonpareils. Voila! You can stop here or add another festive touch with a bow.

How to make a fondant bow

I experimented with a few different ways to add a festive little bow to these Christmas Shortbread Wreaths. In the process, I was excited to discover prepared red buttercream fondant and fondant molds, both inexpensive and so easy to work with. I've never really liked the taste of fondant, so I was also surprised that this stuff actually has decent flavor.

I think you'll be shocked at how easy these two little genius decorating aids are to work with. Both the fondant and the bow mold can be purchased inexpensively online as well as at big box craft stores like Michael's or A.C. Moore. As I said earlier, these cookies are beautiful on their own, but the bows do add a festive touch. Here's a few tips on how to work with the fondant and make the bows:

• Fondant comes in a small container with a lid for easy storage. When you open the container the fondant may feel hard and stiff. A 10-second stint in the microwave is all it takes to make it soft and easy to work with.
• Pull off a small piece of fondant about the size of two peanuts. Knead it with your fingers for 10-15 seconds until it's nice and pliable. Fill the openings of the mold with fondant until they're overflowing (see picture below). It will look like a mess at this point but that will soon change.
• Using a sharp knife parallel to the mold, cut off the excess fondant.
• You don't have to wait for the fondant to harden. Just bend the mold and pull out the bows.

• With a toothpick, dab a bit of icing on the back of the bow then "glue" it to the wreath.

Café Tips for making these Christmas Wreath Shortbread Cookies

• Because there’s no mixer used, the butter needs to be very soft when mixing up these Christmas Wreath Shortbread Cookies. That can be difficult at this time of year, even if you let the butter sit out for hours. A short stint in the microwave on the very lowest power level (on mine, it’s 10%, check to see what yours is) works like magic to soften butter. You’ll need to experiment a bit with your microwave though, as they’re all different. Start with 20 or 30-second increments at power level 10 until you learn how long your microwave will take to get the butter nice and soft, but not melted.
• I used peppermint extract in my glaze and buttercream. Feel free to use other flavorings. Almond, vanilla, orange, lemon and coconut extracts are also delicious.
• Flavor extracts can vary in intensity. It’s better to start with a small amount in the icing, then take a little taste. You can always add more, but you sure can’t remove it!
• The recipe calls for a one hour (or longer) chill for the cutout cookies. If I’m in a big hurry, I just pop them into the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
• A few tips on rolling and cutting out cookies:
  • Keep your work surface and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour. If your dough is sticking to the counter, you need a little more flour underneath it.
  • I also like to rub the cutting edge of my cookie cutter in a little flour in between each cookie.
  • Press fairly firmly when cutting out the cookies, but don’t twist the cookie cutter as the shape will get distorted.
  • If you don’t have room in your refrigerator to chill the cookies on two sheet pans, just transfer all of them to one pan after cutting. Then later, once they’re chilled, you can divide them between the two pans for baking.
  • Occasionally, some of the cookies will be slightly puffed on the top when removed from the oven. You can give them a nice flat top by pushing on the top gently with a metal spatula.
• Keep a damp rag nearby when dipping your cookies in the icing. It comes in handy to wipe messy fingers.
• After dipping a number of cookies the icing may look kind of monotone rather than swirly. No problem, just stir (with a spoon) some of the white icing up from the bottom of the bowl and add another drop or two food color. Swirl again with a toothpick.
• When sprinkling these Christmas Wreath Shortbread Cookieswith nonpareils, sprinkle over a sheet pan or over the sink to contain the tiny little sprinkle balls and avoid a mess all over the kitchen.
• If you find your icing is dripping over the edges of the cookies after you flip them, you're not letting them drip long enough.
• For those of you living outside of the United States, half and half is a convenience product often used for coffee. It's a mixture of half milk and half cream. You could also use whole milk.

If you love these cookies, be sure to check out this collection of our favorite, easy Christmas Cookies!

If you enjoyed this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review! It’s so helpful to other readers to hear other’s results and ideas for variations.

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