A few days ago, we shared a post in which we told you how to prepare icing for cookies. Christmas is coming and it's time to put it into practice! Simple decorations for Christmas cookies, but defined and elegant. That's what we want to focus on in this post. I hope that the ideas for making Christmas cookies that I bring you today inspire you to prepare some of the most beautiful, homemade and original cookies.
You can use the decorated cookies for:
- To enjoy! For breakfast and snacks, or with your midday coffee.
- To decorate your Christmas tree: When you make your cookie dough, make a hole (not too small or it will close up during baking) so you can thread a string through it and use your decorated cookie as a decoration for your Christmas tree or on a nail on the wall.
- Gift giving! Whether it's for friends, neighbors, and family, or just for a guest at someone's house, cookies are the perfect, delicious treat to give as a nice present. The recipient will love you! Tie them up with string to make a little package, or use a cookie box to hold the gift ( Laura Ashley's are perfect for this).
Ideas for making Christmas cookies
1) With chocolate and shavings, decorative elements or chopped nuts
Dip the cookies in melted chocolate and sprinkle with white chocolate shavings, coloured churritos, grated coconut or chopped nuts on top (chopped pistachios, ground almonds, chopped peanuts...). If you use colourful decorations, they will be more festive and cheerful, and if you use nuts or sober colours, they will be more elegant.
They look gorgeous if instead of dipping them completely you cover them partially with chocolate, dipping only part of the cookie in the chocolate .
2) Outline your cookies or apply simple decorative touches with royal icing
Don't overcomplicate things, outlining the cookies is the most practical way, and if you want, add some more details that define or are significant to the shape of the cookie (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 icing and if you want to make something that looks good, less is more.
I'm leaving you with some ideas for shapes and decorations so you can find the ones you like the most 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 dark cookies, simply adding a few tablespoons of cocoa or carob to the dough will make the contrast with the white icing more striking. You can also add gold decorations if you have them, such as sugar balls or similar, and you will 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 apply icing in different colors. Remember that red, green and gold are the colors that most remind us of Christmas.
5) Make embossed cookies
Instead of decorating your cookies, make them pretty right away! Use Nordic Ware cookie stamps to make beautifully shaped and embossed cookies. Greetings and Snowflake are Christmas classics.
If you're looking to make traditional Christmas cookies, the gingerbread man cookie cutters and the gorgeous Speculoos cookie cutter from Lurch are a must-have at home. Once you've got them ready, you can also decorate the cookies with icing, outlining their designs.
6) Use jam to fill your cookies
You can spread jam between 2 biscuits, especially raspberry or strawberry jam: being red and combined with icing sugar, it reminds us of a snowy Christmas, and if the biscuit is made of butter it results in a delicious sweet.
6) Use colorful decorative accessories
If you use chocolates, sprinkles and coloured sugar balls, you will make the most festive and cheerful cookies. You can apply white icing, so you will remember 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 details like icing and others filled entirely. Your guests will be delighted with each of the options.
I hope this post has inspired you to make your own decorated cookies! If you need some supplies to make your cookies, I encourage you to check out the Cookie Stamps and Guns section and the Baking Trays section, they will help you make perfect cookies.
If you are looking for the ideal Christmas cookie recipe, the essential and most elvish of all cookies are undoubtedly gingerbread cookies. Check out this gingerbread cookie recipe, the cookies are delicious.
