Wednesday 3 December 2014

Old-Fashioned Salt Dough Ornaments



My Caker Cooking Christmas Extravaganza continues with a timeless holiday craft bound to give you minutes of enjoyment!

If you’re not talented, not to worry. So long as you can roll dough and pour salt, you can make these heartsome old-fashioned salt dough ornaments. Salt dough, like most caker foods, will last for years and years. Imagine the wonder that your grandchildren’s grandchildren will feel as they gently unwrap these handcrafted legacies of dough from their nests of yellowed paper towel and hang them on the tree. (Or whatever they’ll use for trees in the future. LOL!)

A word of caution: don’t eat the dough. You’ll be tempted, believe me. You’ll be rolling it out and using the cookie cutters and they’ll get all browned up in the oven and when you take them out, you’ll think to yourself, “Maybe just one.” Folks, don’t. It’s not worth it. They don’t taste good. Especially after they’ve been painted. Trust me on this one.

See you back here on Friday for a classic caker holiday recipe. Stock up on the sugar and put the dentist on speed-dial.

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Mix ingredients until dough forms. Use assorted cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Use a toothpick to form a hole near the top of the ornament before baking. Bake at 350°. (See note 1) Let ornaments cool completely. The ornaments can be painted or stained with tea.

I like to add scarves, cut from scrap material, to my Gingerbread men and Snowman. I use fishing line to string my ornaments from the tree. (See note 2)

Note 1: I let mine bake for about a half-hour. Just keep an eye on them.

Note 2: That’s the lady who submitted the recipe talking, not me. I don’t use fishing line. I use folded-out paper clips. They're classier.

Source: National Mfg. Co., 1901-2001, Centennial Cookbook

8 comments:

  1. Works of Art.
    The beardage on Father Christmas is
    SPECTACULAR!!!
    How ever did you achieve this?

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    1. A garlic press. I know. I'm an arts and crafts genius.

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  2. Brian, your ornaments are a glory to behold.

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    1. Oh, go on. They wouldn't win any prizes in a salt dough ornament competition.

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  3. Now you have something to sell at church bazaars!

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    1. I wouldn't want to be accountable for the stampede when people saw these works of art.

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  4. Angels we have heard on high, tell us to go out and buy!
    I hope this isn't too Martha Stuartson for you but we usually substitute 1/2 cup of cinnamon for 1/2 cup of the flour in our salt dough. It smells yummy & the ornaments are brown like gingerbread.
    Unfortunately our salt dough ornaments didn't store well enough for the grandchildren's grandchildren to treasure. They rather disintegrated in the humid heat of the monsoon despite the yellowed paper towels & old newspaper they were so fastidiously ensconced in.

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    1. Adding some cinnamon is a very good idea, Bibi. Although that would make not eating them all the more difficult.

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