I See Your Holiday Cookie Box, and Raise You a Cookie WREATH
This year, as most people stay home and stay safe for the holidays, they continue to do as they’ve been doing for the last nine months: bake their way through the pandemic. Eating is necessary and ingredients tend to be affordable, so it becomes a creative outlet that also fits well in the shutdown lifestyle. As the holidays approach, though, people are saying sayonara to sourdough and the Dutch babies of early on, and instead are looking for colorful and fun ways to show off their spirit through sweet treats. There are hot chocolate bombs and cocoa charcuterie boards, and now Joy the Baker brings us cookie wreaths (!!!!) — an edible way to amp up décor.
Though the Instagram post is but a preview of what is to come in the holiday issue of the Joy the Baker magazine, it shows off the possibilities for a beautiful dessert centerpiece. “Get your copy soon, there are so many dang cookies to bake,” the post says. And the photo shows many of them in the wreath — a circle of cookies laid on a round board with a big ribbon at the top. Little candy cane-colored swirls of peppermint meringue, brown sugar gingersnaps, swirled and sliced cinnamon roll cookies, spiced mulled wine fruit bars, plenty of chocolate, and some nice pastel-sprinkled almond confetti cookies show off the idea. The huge variety in terms of the size, style, texture, color, and flavor of the cookies creates the appeal to the eyes — and, though we can’t taste, we assume the mouth, as well.
The real secrets to the cookie wreath come in the article, though, where she explains how to use royal icing to keep them on the board and how to wrap it up nicely so that it can survive delivery and become a thoughtful, delicious gift.