Holiday Traditions Continued: Kris Kringle Wreath Cookies

Kris Kringle Wreath Cookies

As it is the week before Christmas, I thought I’d revisit and expand on our family holiday traditions. This cookie recipe has been made and served at Christmas in my house for as long as I can remember. First at my parent’s house when I was growing up and now, I’ve continued the tradition with my own family. I’m not sure where or when mom got the recipe, but I suspect it might be from the time we lived in Michigan. I say this because one of our neighbors from a previous neighborhood also happened to be from Michigan and she had a very similar recipe. She is the only person I’ve ever known in my 55 years of life to know and make this Kris Kringle cookie. However, she changed the corn syrup ingredient to marshmallow. Her reasoning was the later was more healthy, not sure about that but to each their own. 

This is my all-time favorite Christmas cookie!

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter or margarine (I use unsalted)

½ cup light corn syrup (this is what holds the cookie together)

½ teaspoon green food coloring (make sure you get the correct color green, one year we accidently bought neon green, and the cookie color came out looking like baby poop green! Still tasted good!)

3 tablespoons sugar

3 ½ cup corn flakes (not the frosted kind)

Red hot candies

Directions:

Measure butter, syrup, food coloring and sugar into a medium size saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir continuously until the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils. Continue boiling for five minutes, stirring frequently.

Remove from heat and add corn flakes and stir until well coated.

Butter your hands (I find wearing latex gloves helps to avoid turning your hands green) and portion the cornflake mixture out (about one hand full per cookie) onto wax paper and loosely shape them into a wreath. Add the red hots (about three per cookie) for a pop of color. Repeat process until all the mixture is out of the pan on the wax paper in the shape of Christmas wreaths. Let stand until firm before serving. 

Helpful tip: Do not stack the cookies until they are completely cool, otherwise you will discover instead of having single Kris Kringle wreaths you have one large clump of green colored cornflakes! Recipe yields about 10 – 12 cookies. I find these cookies are especially good with coffee or red wine! 

Bon Appetit!