Thursday, November 24, 2011

Cinnamon Ornaments

Oooo, look what I made!

 I have been seeing homemade cinnamon ornaments all over the Internet and I decided that I had to make some.  They are actually pretty simple.  I used the recipe from the McCormick website, which called for a 4.12 jar of McCormick's Ground Cinnamon and 3/4 cup of applesauce.  I decided to double the recipe, because I really had no idea how many ornaments a batch might make.
 
Just two ingredients, cinnamon and applesauce.

I poured the cinnamon in a mixing bowl and added the applesauce, then mixed them up.



 The recipe had warned that I would need to use my hands to get it mixed well.  They were right.

I'm not a fan of ick on my hands, so I donned some gloves.

And dug right in.
After a few minutes, this is what I had:

Lovely, isn't it?

The instructions called for putting a ball of dough between two layers of plastic wrap.  For a minute I thought I was in trouble.
Oops, end of the line.

Luckily, I found another package.
I rolled the dough out.

  Then came the fun part! 

I used a straw to make a hole to be able to hang them.

Ready to go in the oven.
 They bake low and slow, for two and a half hours in a 200 degree oven.



Since I had made a double batch, it only took half the dough to fill two cookie sheets.  I packaged the rest of the dough up in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge to do another time.

Two and a half hours later:


Unfortunately, I was not totally thrilled with how they came out.  The edges had curled up on them, so they looked a bit so-so.
 

 I went ahead and played with them a bit, trying out various hangers.






They were okay, but I wasn't satisfied.  Happily though, I still had half the dough left in the fridge.




This time I decided to make them thicker, to see if that would fix the curling problem.  I also used my finger to smooth out any rough edges.  When necessary, I dampened my finger a tiny, tiny bit to help smooth it.

I decided to use just the Christmas tree cookie
cutter.  It had seemed like one of the sturdier shapes.
I wondered if the first batch had overcooked a bit, so I shortened the baking time to just two hours  It seemed to do the trick!  Here they are laid out cooling:

Nine little non-curling trees.


Now that is the look I was going for!  I'm happy with them now. 

All ribboned up.


On a related note:  My house smells wonderful!

I'm linked up with:







25 comments:

  1. I've been seeing this recipe everywhere too, and thinking about doing them with Peeper, or with the MOMS Club kids, but wasn't sure. I'm thinking it might be better to wait a year. Or five.

    ReplyDelete
  2. :) Thanks Whozat!

    I wouldn't really recommend this for Peeper yet, but she would probably have fun with something like the salt dough ornaments.

    Kathy

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  3. YES! I've been holding out to find an easy recipe on how to do these and here it is! Great troubling shooting instructions too!

    Totally sharing this on FJI Facebook and pinned for SNS 109. :)

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150466809246141&set=a.192514281140.164586.175378011140&type=1&theater

    Donna

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  4. I made these but i just left them dry on their own..they did and yea they smell great....


    Donna

    ReplyDelete
  5. Donna @ Funky Junk,

    Thanks! I Liked your FB page. I'm actually not sure why I haven't been to your FB page before; I'm a huge fan of your blo! Thanks again!

    Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  6. Donna Herman,

    I had read about the air dry option, but I was wanting to finish them quicker than that. It was one of the things I thought about to try to avoid the curling problem too. I'm glad to hear it works well.

    They smell soooo good, don't they?

    Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have made them for years. I use equal parts cinnamon and apple sauce. Let them air dry. Super easy. A school teacher told me the equal parts trick. Yours turned out darling. They smell wonderful for years.
    Smiles, Alice

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Alice. I am so glad to hear the scent holds. I was wondering if it would last. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love cinnamon cut-outs in my Christmas pot pourri too.

    I'd love it if you could share this over on my Simply Christmas Inspiration Party at http://shabbyartboutique.blogspot.com/2011/11/inspiration-friday.html

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the invite Kerryanne! I just linked up.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've never seen these before. I'm definitely going to try it. Did you mean air-dry instead of baking in the oven? Do you know how long it would take?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Barb, I think the recipe I used said if you air dried them to let them sit for several days. Thanks for following me!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I bet your home did smell wonderful! I'm going to have to make some of these this week

    ReplyDelete
  14. Kathy these are darling! Very good tutorial too. Thanks so much for sharing with my newbie party.

    ReplyDelete
  15. How cute! they look fantastic!

    Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
    Hope you have a great week!
    Jill @ Creating my way to Success
    http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'll have to try this - I love when the house smells like baking! Good tips, thanks!
    -Jill

    ReplyDelete
  17. These are adorable, and such a nice tutorial too! Many thanks for sharing this at Potpourri Friday!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Kathy, glad that the recipe finally worked the way you wanted it to. The trees turned out to be very cute. Thanks for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris

    ReplyDelete
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