A few days ago, we shared a post in which we told you how to prepare royal icing for cookies. Christmas is coming and it's the perfect time to put it into practice! Simple Christmas cookie decorations, but defined and elegant. In this post that's what we want to focus on. I hope the ideas for making Christmas cookies that I bring you today inspire you to bake some very pretty, homemade, and original cookies.
Decorated cookies you can use them for:
- To enjoy! At breakfasts and snacks, or with the midday coffee.
- To decorate the Christmas tree: when you prepare the cookie dough, make a hole (not too small or it will close during baking), so you can thread a string and use your decorated cookie as a decoration for your Christmas tree or hang it on a nail on the wall.
- To give as gifts! Whether for friends, neighbors and family or the day you are a guest at someone's house, cookies are the perfect and delicious sweets to give and make a good impression. Whoever receives them will adore you! Tie them with a string like a little package, or use a cookie box to present them (the Laura Ashley ones are ideal for that).
Ideas for making Christmas cookies
1) With chocolate and sprinkles, decorative elements, or chopped nuts
Dip the cookies in melted chocolate and sprinkle white chocolate shavings, colored sprinkles, shredded coconut, or chopped nuts on top (chopped pistachios, ground almonds, chopped peanuts...). If you use colorful decorations, they'll be more festive and cheerful, and if you use nuts or subdued colors they'll be more elegant.
They look beautiful if instead of dipping them completely you partially cover them with chocolate, dipping only part of the cookie in the chocolate.
2) Outline your cookies or add simple decorative touches with royal icing
Don't complicate things; outlining the cookies is the most practical, and if you want add a little more detail that defines or is meaningful to the cookie's shape (the eyes and mouth on a gingerbread man, the nose and antlers on a reindeer, the door on a little house...). If you haven't experimented much with royal icing and want something that looks good, less is more.
I'll leave you some ideas for shapes and decorations so you can find the ones you like best or that inspire your own.
Remember that in this post you have all the details on how to prepare the icing for your cookies.
3) Add cocoa to your cookie dough
If you make darker cookies by simply adding a few tablespoons of cocoa or carob to the dough, the contrast with white icing becomes more pronounced. You can also add gold decorations if you have them, like sugar balls or similar; you'll see that the contrast is wonderful and elegant. You can also add small details of gold or silver icing.
4) Fill your decorated cookies with icing
Fill your cookies completely, and use icings in different colors. Remember that the colors red, green, and gold are the ones that most evoke Christmas.
5) Make embossed cookies
Instead of decorating the cookies, make them beautiful from the start! Use Nordic Ware cookie stamps to make very well-defined cookies with a lovely relief. The Greetings and Snowflake molds are a Christmas classic.
If what you want is to make traditional Christmas cookies, a must-have at home are gingerbread cookie cutters and the beautiful Lurch Speculoos Cookie Mold. Once you have them ready, you can also decorate the cookies with icing, tracing their designs.
6) Use jam to fill your cookies
You can spread jam between two cookies, especially raspberry or strawberry jam: being red and combined with powdered sugar, it reminds us of snowy Christmas, and if the cookie is a butter cookie it results in a delicious treat.
6) Use colorful decorative additions
If you use chocolates, sprinkles and colored sugar balls, you'll make very festive and cheerful cookies. You can apply white icing, which will remind you of the cold snowy winter of Lapland, where Santa Claus comes from, while all the sprinkles and details you add will stick.
7) Combine different types of finishes
Bring to the table cookies with just sugar, others with icing details, and others fully filled. Your guests will be delighted with each option.
I hope this post has inspired you to make your decorated cookies! If you need supplies to make your cookies, I encourage you to check the Cookie Stamps & Guns section and the Baking Trays section, they will help you make perfect cookies.
If you're looking for the ideal Christmas cookie recipe, without a doubt the essential and most elfin of all are ginger cookies. Check out this ginger cookie recipe, it makes delicious cookies.
