Festive Gingerbread Cookie Wreath!
Here’s a holiday wreath you can eat! Made from spiced-up shortcut cookie dough and three-ingredient pumpkin pie spiced icing, it’s an easy, fun—and delicious—way to bake something new for the holidays!
1 COOKIES pkg. (16.5 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup molasses 1 Tbs. ground ginger 1 tsp. ground cinnamon ICING 1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted 1 Tbs. meringue powder 1 tsp. liquid pumpkin pie spice extract, such as Mccormick
● Cookies: Line baking sheets with parchment paper. On low speed, beat together cookie dough, flour, molasses, ginger and cinnamon until blended and smooth. Reserve 3/4 cup dough. Shape remaining dough into 1/2"-thick disk; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate wrapped dough until firm enough to shape roll out, about 1 hour.
● Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll remaining 3/4 cup dough into 20" rope. Transfer rope to 1 baking sheet. Shape rope into 8 1/2" circle, pressing ends together, as shown.
● With fingers, lightly press dough into 2"-wide, 1/8"-thick ring, as
shown. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges start to brown. Cool 5 minutes. Carefully transfer parchment paper with ring on it to rack. Cool completely.
● On lightly floured surface, roll out remaining dough to 1/8" thickness. Using 3 1/2" and 2 1/4" gingerbread men, 3 1/2" and 2" snowflake and 1 1/2" heart shaped cookie cutters, cut out shapes, re-rolling scraps as necessary. Transfer to baking sheets. Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges start to brown. Cool 5 minutes. Transfer from pans to racks; cool completely.
● Icing: On low, beat confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, 2 Tbs. water and extract until just combined; continue beating until icing forms peaks, about 7 minutes. If icing is too thick to pipe, beat in additional water, 1 Tbs. at a time. Transfer 1/4 cup icing to separate bowl; cover. Transfer remaining icing to disposable plastic pastry bag; snip tip. Pipe decorations onto cookies as desired. Let dry, 20 minutes. With reserved icing, attach some of cookies to ring. Let dry, 30 minutes. Makes 30 cookies and 10" ring.