These delicious Christmas shortbread cookies are super quick and easy to make, full of festive flavours and look so Christmassy too.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- These Christmas shortbread cookies are super quick and easy to make, and who doesn’t love an easy bake!
- The taste – these Christmas cookies have all those festive flavours rolled into one delicious bake.
- That Christmas look – cut out to look like mini Christmas wreaths, these Christmas cookies are so pretty and will look great on your festive table.
Christmas is a time of baking, even those who avoid the oven for the rest of the year can be tempted to try their hand at baking during the holidays.
These quick and easy Christmas cookies are the perfect sweet treat to get you started on the baking buzz even if you have never opened the oven door before.
Shortbread is a Scottish classic and so easy to make, I’ve made everything from Valentine’s shortbread to Millionaire’s shortbread and lavender shortbread cookies here to name but a few. I’ve even had a Scottish baking book published (Simply Scottish Cakes & Bakes) that has a whole section on different types of Scottish shortbread.
Ingredients for Christmas shortbread cookies
This is a real store cupboard cookie recipe. For the shortbread, all you need is unsalted butter, caster sugar and plain flour.
Now you want those festive spices to make your Christmas cookies extra special – I’ve used a mixture of ground cinnamon, cloves and ginger.
Finally, there is the citrus element, because they wouldn’t be Christmas cookies without the tang of orange and a wee zesty hit of lemon.
To turn these simple spiced shortbread cookies into a real holiday treat you want to decorate them with a bit of festive style.
I’ve gone for white chocolate topped with dried cranberries, crushed pistachios and a sprinkling of snow-like desiccated coconut.
Alternative ingredients
If you don’t want to mix your own spices as I have for this Christmas shortbread cookies recipe then why not just use Mixed Spice blend instead. I think this is often called Apple Pie blend in USA.
How to make spicy Christmas shortbread cookies
This is such an easy recipe for Christmas cookies. All you have to do is cream together the butter and sugar in your mixer then throw in the flour and spices till everything is well combined.
Then wrap the cookie dough in clingfilm and pop it in the fridge for half an hour to firm up a bit.
Roll out your cookie dough to about 3mm thick and cut out larger rounds with a fluted or plain round cookie cutter. Then cut out the centres with a small cutter. This way you end up with nice Christmas cookies shaped like festive wreaths.
Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes till lightly golden. Then let your spicy Christmas shortbread cookies cool on a wire rack. You will find that these biscuits will firm up more as they cool.
How to decorate Christmas shortbread cookies
I’ve gone for the whole snowy Christmas wreath look for these lovely Christmas shortbread biscuits.
Simply melt the white chocolate either in a microwave or in a Bain Marie (a bowl over a pan of bubbling water that doesn’t actually touch the base of the bowl) and slather it on to your shortbread wreath shapes.
Now simply sprinkle the shortbread cookies with snipped up dried cranberries and some crumbled pistachios for some lovely festive red and green colour and sprinkle over some desiccated coconut for that all-important snowy look.
How many does this make?
This spiced Christmas shortbread cookie recipe made a total of 16 cookies for me. Once you have cut out all the cookie shapes you can from the dough, simply bunch it together again and roll out and cut more biscuits till you have used up all the dough.
Storage
Your Christmas shortbread cookies will keep for about 4 days in a tin or box. You can freeze the cookies before you ice them if you want to.
Serving ideas
Serve these Christmas cookies with a glass of milk or a nice cup of tea of coffee of course.
These Christmas shortbread cookies make the perfect addition to your Christmas hampers. Check out this post on how to put together the perfect Christmas hamper.
Don’t forget to leave some Christmas cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve!
This super recipe is part of my latest ebook Foodie Gifts For Christmas Book 2. You can also check out my other books on My Book Page.
Looking for more super easy Christmas baking ideas to try? Then check these out before you go;
Mince pies with Brie and walnuts
While you are in the festive mood why not check out my Christmas recipe section for lots of Christmas inspiration.
Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.
Spiced Christmas Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 50 g caster sugar
- 180 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp orange zest
Topping
- 100 g white chocolate
- 1 tbsp dried cranberries chopped
- 1 tbsp pistachios crumbled
- 1 tsp desiccated coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet
- Beat the sugar and butter in food mixer then add other ingredients till well blended
- Wrap dough in clingfilm and chill in fridge for half an hour to firm up
- Roll out to 3mm thick and cut out wreath shapes and bake for 15 mins till golden then cool on wire rack
Topping
- Melt white chocolate either in microwave or Bain Marie (bowl over bubbling water that doesn't touch the base of the bowl) and cover the cooled cookies with chocolate
- Sprinkle over the dried cranberries and pistachios and finish with the coconut like snow
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