Cinnamon Ornament Recipe – How to make Cinnamon Dough

This a cinnamon ornament recipe I think you'll enjoy using. One of our traditions is making handmade ornaments using this each year. The kids have come up with some fun ideas-like the year we took all those mismatched socks (Like the lost ones the washer eats!) and tea dyed them and hung them on the tree with mini clothes pins! We've done beading ornaments, paper ornaments, filled plastic ornaments, painted ornaments, but the one my kids love to do EVERY year is making cinnamon dough ornaments!

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Just a reminder-make sure you put a hole in the ornament before you bake or air dry them! We had lots of “bowls” of ornaments one year as we forgot that one step!
This first recipe is one that I use quite a bit. For Christmas, we make some gingerbread ornies and put each one in a bag with a topper with the recipe and send them in with my kids for their classmates! Nothing better than passing a tradition on to another family!

Cinnamon Ornament Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 tbs. shortening
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp each ground cloves, cinnamon and ginger

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. stir in molasses. sift the dry ingredients together. stir them into shortening mixture in 3 parts alternating with a 1/4 cup of water each time. dough will be stiff.
3. Use cinnamon to dust counter top and roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thickness.
4. Using cookie cutters, cut out your shapes.
5. Use a straw to poke a hole for hanging.
6.  Bake on a cookie sheet for 20 min. then turn off oven and let cool in oven-you may need to flip these a few times.
7. Let cookies air dry for a day or so. you can paint these with acrylic paint seal the front (so you can still smell the backs!) with Modge Podge, polyurethane sealer or dip into melted candle wax to seal and scent.
8. If you want a lighter colored gingerbread ornaments, substitute light corn syrup for the molasses or go half and half. you can also use wheat flour for a different look! if you want some puffy ornaments, substitute 1/2 the regular flour with self rising flour!

New Tips & Ideas

Since this article was first written, cookie ornament making has reached a whole new level of potential. Now we have all kinds of new cookie cutters and embelishments not available before. You can definitely experiment decorations used on real cookies. Icing, candies, and sprinkles are great go-to options. You can use some for edible cookies and some for your ornaments. Or if you like, use non-edible decorations like dimensional fabric paint, glitter, and scrapbook embelishments.  You can also go old fashioned style by keeping them simple. Adding a few white snow decorations with icing or paint and then dip into a scented bees wax. The wax will actually help keep your ornaments longer!  Just melt your wax until it's melted. Too hot and it won't stick to the cookies as well.