Cinnamon Dough Ornaments; for younger and older

Today we made Cinnamon Dough Ornaments.

I have always loved the look and fragrance of Cinnamon Christmas Ornaments, and I thought this week, while we are studying the spice cinnamon, was the perfect time to try it out.

There are several recipes out there for them, but they all are pretty much the same, with minor adjustments to proportions. We used this recipe:
1 cup applesauce
1-1 1/2 cups cinnamon
1/4 cup white Elmer's glue
Mix together, starting with 1 cup of cinnamon, adding a little more at a time until it gets to a kneading consistency. Knead until thoroughly mixed.
Roll out to 1/4 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters. Put a hole in the top for hanging with a toothpick or the end of a paintbrush. Let air dry for 2-4 days, turning over once or twice a day to evenly dry through. Ornaments will shrink a bit as they dry.
The extra bonus for this dough is that it is gluten-free, so my oldest two could handle it.

Using that much cinnamon for enough dough for all the family seemed a bit expensive, so I chose to use a Cinnamon Salt Dough for the younger boys. I used this recipe from Little Wonder's Days:
2 cups flour
 1 cup salt
 1 cup water
 5 tablespoons of cinnamon
 Knead until smooth and then refrigerate for about 30 minutes before using. Just as the other dough, you roll it out and cut it into shapes just like regular cookie dough. Once you have your ornaments made, place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake them in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for about 45-60 minutes.

The house smelled wonderful while they were making them...

and even more so when they were baking.
When they come out of the oven they look like this...less brown, more white.

They smelled so good, I just might have to make another batch of cinnamon cookies to eat!
Once the ornaments were baked, the boys set to work painting them.

Pin It