Cinnamon Salt Dough

            Does anyone else have memories of making salt dough ornaments 

 at Christmas when you were a kid? 

My mom wasn't a big fan of letting us make a mess in her kitchen, but I do remember that she always let us make these ornaments. We just used plain salt dough and painted them after they came out of the oven. I've seen a few recipes for adding cinnamon to the dough which makes the house smell great and produces a pretty brown ornament, so that is what the older boys and I did this morning. 

This is what Max did...

We had fun mixing up the dough, rolling it out, and deciding which cookie cutters to use. The dough is pretty stiff so I told Wyatt that I should probably be the one to roll it out. He let me the first time, but then he told me about his big muscles, so I let him have a turn.

He decided it was necessary to climb onto the counter to do it. Which of course meant that pretty soon Carson was up there, too. But he had a little different idea of how to roll out the dough...

Sometimes you need to break out the heavy equipment.

 

 

 Here's the recipe in case you want to make your own:

 

Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments

1 C. cinnamon

2 C. flour

1 C. salt

1 ¾ C. warm water

Mix the cinnamon, salt, and flour in a mixing bowl. Add the water and stir or use a stand mixer with a paddle or dough hook to combine. The dough will be very stiff. Knead a few times with your hands, then roll out on a surface lightly dusted with cinnamon. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and poke a hole with a straw or toothpick. Bake at 300° for 45 to 50 minutes, or until dried.

One side stays dark but the other gets a little lighter.

I was looking for some ribbon to string them on and found a few strips of fabric in my scrap box, so I used that instead. Much more fun, I think!

We always go out and cut our Christmas tree, but I wanted a little one for the kids' playroom so I got them a pre-lit 4-ft tree and plan on letting them make all the decorations for it. I'm also hoping that Max will get used to that tree and won't mess with ours too much once we get the real one. I doubt it will work, but we'll see!

I'll be linking these babies up to Debbie's Tuesdays at the Table. Stop by and see what everyone else is cooking up! I'll bet there are some Christmas cookies this week!