I used salt dough for the first time a couple years ago to make some really adorable Gingerbread Man ornaments. They were a really fun holiday craft project and those little gingerbread men ornaments have become my favorite ornaments on the Christmas tree.
Read about how easy it is to make these utterly adorable little ornaments. It’s a great holiday project to do with your kids!
I love working with salt dough for a few reasons. It’s a very inexpensive medium to make, it uses ingredients you already have in your cupboard, you can make a batch of dough in just a few minutes, and it produces a soft pliable dough that is easy to work with.
The gingerbread ornaments were a fun project but this cinnamon dough is even easier to use! If you want to paint your ornaments, use the basic salt dough recipe. If you are feeling lazy and don’t want to be bothered with painting your creations, then this is the perfect dough for you! The addition of cinnamon gives this dough a beautiful natural rustic hue.
Not only does it have a lovely natural color, that requires less work, but it has an amazing cinnamon scent that will fill your home with it’s lovely cinnamony fragrance!
Let’s make some of these lovely, easy to make, rustic ornaments already! Start by gathering together all the ingredients, all 4 of them, flour, salt, cinnamon and water. That’s it!
Place all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix the dough. Easy-peasy!
Once you have a crumbly mixture like this, dump it on to your work surface.
Knead dough with your hands for about a minute to bring it all together into a smooth ball.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to about a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out shapes with cookie cutter shapes of your choice.
Remove excess dough between shapes.
Using a straw or wooden skewer, poke a hole through the shape. This is where you will be placing a length of twine or string to hang your ornaments.
Place cut out ornaments on a cookie sheet, making sure they are not touching each other.
TIP: Dip your finger in water and use moistened fingertips to smooth out the edges if they look uneven or rough.
Bake shapes in a 250 degree oven for 3-4 hours or until completely dry. Turn shapes over half way through baking time to ensure each side bakes evenly. I found that the side facing the cookie sheet baked up darker than the side facing up. Turning them over halfway through helps to brown them a little more evenly on both sides.
Once the dough has cooled to room temperature, thread a length of string through the hole you made in each shape. You can further embellish shapes with a bit of paint if desired but it’s not really necessary. They are actually quite lovely in their natural color from the addition of the cinnamon to the dough.
These lovely scented rustic ornaments can be hung on your Christmas tree or used to embellish gifts.
Pair these cinnamon scented ornaments with dried citrus slices for rustic, natural touches that will not only look lovely on your Christmas tree, but they will fill your home with lovely holiday scents.
Cinnamon Salt Dough
Equipment
- Cookie cutters in various shapes.
- Straw or skewer
- Rolling Pin
- Twine or string
Materials
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup salt
- ½ cup water
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Bake facedown at 250 degrees for about 2 hours, or let air dry.
- Stir together flour, salt, cinnamon and water until a crumbly dough forms.
- Place on your work surface and knead dough until a smooth ball forms.
- Using a rolling pin roll out dough to about a ¼ inch thickness.
- Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
- Using a straw or skewer pierce dough.
- Place shapes on a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 2 hours in a 250° oven. Turn pieces over after 1 hour so that both sides darken more evenly. The side facing the cookie sheet will darken more than the side facing up.
- When dough is dry, remove from oven and allow dough to cool to room temperature.
- Place a length of string through the hole in each shape and tie off.
- Hang your creations on your Christmas tree, use them to embellish gift boxes, or hang them on a holiday inspired garland.
Notes
Did You Make These?
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