Christmas Wreath Sugar Cookies

5 from 34 votes

This Christmas wreath sugar cookies recipe makes perfect holiday cookies with pretty chocolate wreaths, fondant poinsettia and holly.

Prep Time30

Cook Time10

Decorating time2

Total Time2 40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: cookies

Calories: 83kcal

Line baking tray with parchment paper and pre-heat oven to 175 °Celsius.
Place butter in a clean bowl. Add the granulated sugar and cream both until the mixture turns creamy (see Note 1).
Next, add the egg and continue beating until it is well incorporated into the creamed mixture. Add vanilla extract and mix again.
Finally, add the flour in batches and mix until the dough comes together. Place the dough in a covered bowl and refrigerate until it is slightly firm. Do not leave the dough for too long or it will be too hard to roll.
Remove dough from the fridge and roll it between parchment paper or plastic sheets. Use dowel rods as a guide for the thickness of your cookies (see Notes 2 & 3).
Cut the dough with a round scalloped cookie cutter. Use a smaller cutter for the center.
Place the cut out round cookies on prepared parchment paper or cookie sheet. Refrigerate until they are firm.
Bake cookies for about 10 to 15 minutes (depending on the size of your cookies) until they turn golden brown on the sides.
Remove cookies from the oven and cool them on a wire rack to room temperature. Keep cookies in an airtight container until ready to decorate.

Knead and roll some red fondant thin. Cut out 12 teardrop petals for each poinsettia. Keep them covered as you form the flowers.
Pinch the pointed ends of each petal to make them slightly more pointy.
Start by placing 3 petals in a circle with the pointed ends pointing outwards. Apply some glue at the rounded ends of each petal.
Arrange another 3 petals on top of the first set of petals, making sure these are placed right in between each of the petals set earlier. .
Repeat the process with another 2 sets of 3 petals, making sure the petals are placed in between each of the petal set before. Each flower should have 12 petals.
Next, lift the flowers and put them into a flower former (or any container that is rounded to help the flower set in a rounded form) that has been well dusted with cornstarch. Use a star tool to press in the center of the flower.
For the yellow centers, make 3 tiny balls with yellow fondant. Apply glue to the center of the flower and place the yellow centers right in the center of each flower.
Complete all the flowers and leave them aside to set while you complete the rest of the cookies decoration (see Note 4).

Roll some dark chocolate fondant into a long thin strip or a few shorter strips (see Note 5).
Gather 5 layers of the strips together and twist them gently to form a twisted rope. The twisting does not have to be perfect nor does it have to be closely formed.
Brush your cookie with some glue and attach the twisted brown twigs onto it. Place it towards the outer circumference of the wreath and cut off the excess.
Repeat the process for another layer of twisted brown twigs, this time with only 3 strips of the fondant. Attach the strip below the earlier one and trim off the excess (see Note 6).

Tint some white fondant with Americolor Olive food color. Roll it thin and use a slightly larger teardrop cutter than the one used for the petals to cut out the leaves. You will need 6 leaves for each cookie.
For each leaf, use a needle tool (or a toothpick or skewer) to imprint a line in the middle. Start from the round end to the pointy end of each cutout. Next, pinch the pointy ends slightly to make them look like leaves.

Attach the first 4 leaves to the cookies (with some glue), close to the chocolate twigs earlier.
Next, add 2 poinsettia flowers on either side of the twigs' ends (with a light brush of glue). Place another 2 leaves after the flowers.
And complete the circle with the final poinsettia in the center. Adjust the flowers and leaves as necessary.

Pinch tiny bits of red fondant and form them into smooth balls.
Group them into 3s and attach 3 sets of holly berries onto each cookie. Start with the first set directly opposite the centermost poinsettia. Apply a light brush of glue so that the berries stay in place. Attach another 2 sets of the berries on either side of the wreath.

Dip the needle tool in fondant glue, touch the star sprinkle with the tip (the stars will stick to the needle tool tip easily) and press it gently onto the wreath (apply some glue to the wreath before placing the stars on).
Attach the stars randomly on the Christmas wreath, making sure they are well distributed on the wreath.
Brush off any excess cornstarch on the decorated cookies with a soft brush to complete the cookie decorating.

Do not over overbeat the mixture. Suffice if it turns creamy. There is no need for it to become light and fluffy.
To make sure all your cookies are of a consistent thickness, place 2 dowel rods on either side of your cookie dough when rolling it. The rods will make sure you do not roll your dough too thin or too thick and the thickness will follow the diameter of your rods.
Also, when rolling the dough, do it between 2 parchment sheets. That helps prevent the dough from sticking to your workspace and rolling pin, and it also helps to release the cookies better after cutting.
It is faster to make the flowers all at once, so you can actually cut out all the petals at once and keep them covered as you form the flowers. You can even make these flowers in advance.
You can also use a fondant extruder tool to pipe out the long strips of chocolate fondant.
In deciding on the length of the twigs on the cookie, place 3 of your poinsettia on the cookies and trim off the brown twigs right where the flowers row starts and ends.