Cinnamon Salt Dough ROCKS!!!

Oh, I love the Fall. I really do! The coolness of the mornings, the sunshine at midday, the greenery giving way to hues of orange and red. Just love it!

All of this lovely cool weather had me craving some warm decorations to go with it.  Ta Da!! 

I've always wanted to make Cinnamon Ornaments, but the only recipe I'd ever seen used applesauce to bind the cinnamon, or maybe a bit of glue and applesauce. Here in the South, applesauce just attracts ants and bugs.  So, I never actually made the ornaments, although I did discover I had purchased 4 containers of cinnamon !!

When I found the recipe from Colleen at her blog, And Baby Makes Five, I knew I had to give it a try.  I figured the worst thing that could happen is that the ornaments would turn out horribly, they'd fall apart, and the children / table / floor would be covered in gooey dough and cinnamon.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well they turned out!!  The kids had fun and didn't fight for a whole 15 minutes!!  Sure, there was a mess on the table and floor.  My son lost interest quickly in creating actual ornaments, but he had fun playing with the dough and creating space creatures which attacked the table.  He also discovered that the dough doesn't taste as good as it smells.  My daughter made some really fun little pumpkins, and even made a Jack O'Lantern Wreath and a Pirate Pumpkin.  ha.

The best part is the SMELL. Honestly. It still smells so goooooood in here!

Here's the original post from Colleen:  http://andbabymakesfive-colleen.blogspot.com/2010/09/cinnamon-salt-dough-gingers-tutorial.html

I altered her recipe just a bit:

2 C flour
3/4 C cinnamon
1 C salt
1 1/2 C lukewarm water

I think I ended up adding just a tablespoon or two of extra flour to keep the dough from being too sticky.  I used my Kitchenaid with the dough hook to mix it all up.

Use cinnamon on the table and your hands instead of flour when you roll it out.  Pinch off a ball, cover it in cinnamon, then roll it or press it flat with your hands.  I had a 7 oz jar of cinnamon (Dollar Store!) and there was still about a half cup of cinnamon in the jar after using it for the recipe and for dusting the dough.  Guess we'll be making more of these, since I still have 3 full containers of cinnamon.
It's probably a good idea to use this shortly after making it.  We put ours in the fridge, wrapped in plastic.  When we took it out, moisture condensed on the surface of the dough, so we had to use extra cinnamon to keep it from being so sticky.

The ornaments that were thinner (about 1/4" or so) came out the best.  The thicker ornaments puffed up when they baked and were hollow inside.  Still a neat look.

We made about 2 dozen pumpkin ornaments, some "bones" and some witch hats.

Put the ornies on parchment or foil to bake.  Ours did stick a little bit, but the foil peeled off easily enough once they were cooled.

Colleen covered hers in wax or said to use poly spray.  I haven't covered ours in anything, we like the cinnamon smell.  If they disintegrate after the holiday, that's fine.  Christmas is right around the corner, we'll just make some more!!