This Gingerbread Wreath recipe turns your favorite Christmas cookies into the cutest Christmas centerpiece or edible homemade gift for the holidays.
No-spread cut-out gingerbread cookies are easy to make with molasses and robust warming spices, plus royal icing and colored candy ball buttons that create a fun cooking craft for your family.
Gingerbread Cookie Christmas Wreath
Our Gingerbread Cookie Wreath recipe uses simple kitchen staple ingredients to make a large batch of no spread dough, leaving you plenty of room on your cookie sheet for both the wreath and many mini cut outs.
Easy to assemble and so much fun to decorate, I think it’s best to bake your Christmas decor instead of buying it when it can double as a delicious dessert and a gorgeous gift.
While gingerbread houses are a timeless traditional activity, this Christmas gingerbread Christmas wreath is an easier alternative, with the same classic white icing and ginger, clove, and cinnamon flavors, but baked in an iconic holiday wreath form.
When the urge to snack strikes, break off a bite of a crunchy cookie and eat it right off the Christmas wreath!
Why We Love This Wreath Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
- Easy to make cookie dough bakes in only 10 minutes.
- Uses simple ingredients to create a classic Christmas cookie.
- Perfect spice to sweetness ratio to appease all palates; they are mild enough to call kid-friendly, yet still festively flavorful for adults.
- Delicately crunchy and gently spiced with seasonal flavors.
- Fun and festive family project that’s great for gifting and looks adorable as a centerpiece.
Other Easy Christmas Craft Recipes
Ingredients
- Granulated sugar
- Salted butter
- Molasses
- Egg
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Ground ginger
- Ground cloves
- Ground cinnamon
- Egg whites
- Powdered sugar
- Small chocolate balls, M&Ms, or smarties
Substitutions and Additions
- Cookie Cutters: Feel free to cut out your cookies in the shapes of stars, Christmas trees, snowmen, snowflakes, or any of your holiday favorites.
- Go Without Ground Cloves: The ground cloves add a complex flavor dimension to the gingerbread. If you are not a fan of cloves, you can substitute it with ground ginger.
- Decorations: Feel free to use M&Ms, raisins, currants, cinnamon red hot candies, chocolate chips, or any other candy to create buttons for your gingerbread cookies.
Recommended Tools
- Handheld mixer
- Gingerbread Man shaped cookie cutters
- Large baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Rolling pin
- Piping bag or ziplock bag
- Ribbon
See Full Recipe Card Below
Jump to RecipeHow to Make Gingerbread Wreath
- Make The Cookie Dough: Mix together the sugar, butter, molasses and egg. Sift in the flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon and mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Chill: Form the dough into a ball, knead until smooth, and then divide into two balls of dough. Flatten each ball into a disc shape, wrap in plastic, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Cut Out Your Circle: Roll out one of the dough discs between two sheets of parchment paper until a little less than 1/2 inch thick. Use a dinner plate as a template to cut out the outer circle and a smaller plate to cut out the center circle.
- Cut Out Your Characters: Roll out the rest of the dough and use the cookie cutters to cut shapes from the dough.
Pro Tip: You will need at least 10 Gingerbread cookies to make up the wreath. - Bake: Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before decorating.
- Make the Royal Icing: Whisk the egg whites until frothy. Add the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, and beat until smooth.
- Decorate: Pipe the icing onto each cookie and use it as glue to secure the candy buttons.
- Assemble: Add Royal Icing to the undersides of each gingerbread cookie and gently press it onto the wreath. Tie a ribbon onto the wreath and display it as holiday centerpiece or decor. Enjoy!
Tip From Our Recipe Developer
- This recipe makes a large batch of dough that will make the wreath plus plenty of cookies. You might have some leftover dough depending on the size; they may not all fit on the wreath.
- I used a 10 cm Gingerbread Man cookie cutter. If you don’t have this exact size it doesn’t matter. Ensure you cut enough cookies to fit around the wreath.
- The dough will hardly spread during baking so you can fit quite a few cookies on the baking sheet. Leave about 1cm in between each cookie.
- I recommend you bake each batch for 10 minutes, which will yield a crunchier cookie that is more robust for wreath making. For a softer cookie bake for 8 minutes, but take care during assembly in case the cookies break.
- There is enough Royal Icing to decorate all the cookies and to use as “glue” for the wreath assembly.
- Use pasteurized eggs for the Royal Icing as they are safe to eat raw. I would caution you against any form of raw egg if you are pregnant.
Storage
- To Store: Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
- To Freeze: Gingerbread dough can be frozen for up to one month.
Other Easy Christmas Cookie Recipes
- Melted Snowman Cookies
- Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
- Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees
- Grinch Cake Mix Cookies
Gingerbread Wreath
Serves — 32
This Gingerbread Wreath recipe is easily made using molasses and warming spices and turns the classic Christmas cookie into the cutest seasonal centerpiece. Perfectly festive and filled with plenty of sweet flavor, this treat tastes delicious for dessert or can be given as a homemade edible gift.
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup salted butter at room temp
- ¾ cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 3.5 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons baking soda
- 2.5 tablespoons ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the Royal Icing
- ¼ cup egg whites plus a little extra if needed
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Put the sugar, butter, molasses and egg into a large mixing bowl. Use a handheld electric mixer to thoroughly combine until any lumps of butter have been dispersed.
- Sift in the flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves and cinnamon and mix on a low speed until the dough starts to cling together leaving the sides of the bowl clean.
- Use your hands to bring the dough into a ball. Lightly flour a surface and turn the dough out on to it. Knead very briefly until smooth then divide into two balls of dough. Flatten each ball of dough into a disc shape then wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350oF. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Remove the chilled dough from the fridge. Roll out one of the discs between two sheets of parchment paper to a thickness of about 1cm.
- Leaving the rolled out dough on the parchment, use a dinner plate (ours was 26cm) as a template for a circle. Cut around the edge of the plate with a sharp knife and remove the excess dough. You will be left with a circle.
- Add a smaller plate (ours was 15cm) to the center of the circle of dough. Cut around the smaller plate then remove the dough from the center. This will leave you with a ring of dough.
- Slide the parchment paper with the ring of dough onto a baking sheet.
- Roll out the rest of the dough between sheets of parchment. Use the Gingerbread Man cookie cutters to cut shapes from the dough. You will need at least 10 Gingerbread Men to make up the wreath.
- Gently transfer the cut out cookies on to the lined baking sheet.
- Put both baking sheets in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned.
- Remove from the oven and immediately transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- You may need to work in batches.
Make the Royal Icing:
- Put the egg whites into a mixing bowl and whisk until frothy. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time and vigorously beat until smooth.
- At this point you will need to check the consistency of the icing. It should easily flow in a thick ribbon from a spatula when picked up and the consistency of toothpaste. If it’s looking a bit thick add more egg whites (or cold water) a tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat until it reaches the desired consistency.
- Transfer the Royal Icing to a piping bag then snip the very end off with a pair of scissors.
- When the cookies have cooled you can decorate them. (Use the images for inspiration.)
To assemble the wreath:
- Add a small amount of Royal Icing to the underneath of a Gingerbread Man cookie and gently press it onto the wreath. Repeat with the remaining cookies working your way around the wreath.
- Tie the ribbon onto the wreath and display it as holiday centrepiece.
- Enjoy!
Jenn’s Notes
Makes: Wreath surround plus approx 32 cookies.
Storage:
- To Store: Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
- To Freeze: Gingerbread dough can be frozen for up to one month.
- These wonderfully versatile Gingerbread Cookies are a tasty and robust cookie choice for a beautiful Gingerbread Wreath. The dough is easy to make and will not spread in the oven. The gingerbread cookies are delicately crunchy and gently spiced – perfect for the festive season!
- The ground cloves add a complex flavor dimension to the gingerbread. If you are not a fan of cloves you can substitute it with ground ginger.
- This is a large batch of dough that will make the wreath surround plus plentiful cookies. You might have some leftover as depending on the size, they may not all fit on the wreath.
- We used a 10cm Gingerbread Man cookie cutter. If you don’t have this exact size it doesn’t matter. Ensure you cut enough cookies to fit around the wreath.
- Once you’ve made the dough you can use it straight away, however, it will be softer and not as easy to handle so that’s why we recommend chilling the dough for a short time before cutting out the shapes.
- The dough will hardly spread during baking so you can fit quite a few cookies on the baking sheet. Leave about 1cm in-between.
- We recommend you bake for 10 minutes which will yield a crunchier cookie that is more robust for wreath making. For a softer cookie bake for 8 minutes but take care during assembly in case the cookies break.
- There is enough Royal Icing to decorate all the cookies and to use as ‘glue’ for the wreath assembly.
- Use pasteurized eggs (for the Royal Icing) as they are safe to eat raw. We would caution you against any form of raw egg if you are pregnant.
Nutrition Info
Calories: 183kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 248mg | Potassium: 142mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 141IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg
