 | Lori Horton is the owner of Celebrations by Lori in Pittsburg, Ks. With over 15 years experience in the bakery business, Lori opened Celebrations in 2000. She is always out front with the most unique ideas in cake and cookie decorating for all occasions. Celebrations is also on top of the industries' latest trends and products with the area's largest selection of baking and cake decorating supplies. Open Monday - Saturday, Celebrations can be reached at 620-231-5700 or at www.celebrationsbylori.com |
Food & Drink
2012-11-19 11:13:58
Dough ornaments for Christmas
Q- The kids love to play with cookie decorating but I'm wondering how to bake early and prepare these for gifts. How far ahead is too far for the items to still be fresh and tasty?
A- This is a really tough question because the closer the holidays get, the busier we all get and time to spend in the kitchen becomes premium. Here's a different take on a kid friendly item that makes great gifts.... Dough ornaments that are NOT edible but still rolled, cut and decorated with many of the same tools and techniques as regular cookies. The recipe below makes approximately 15 "cookies" depending on the size of your cutters. Use a straw to punch a small hole out near the top and after baking you will have a spot to string a ribbon or string through for hanging. You can use any type of craft paint to decorate the ornaments after they have baked and cooled and to really preserve them, add a layer of clear varnish or Mod Podge. Another alternative is to add gel food colors to the dough while you are kneading it up and just make the whole ornament a solid color. For example you could dye your dough a nice bright green to cut out Christmas tree shapes and then you only have to paint on a few dots for ornaments, use glue to add glitter or simply take a Sharpie marker to write a name and make it personalized. The possibilities are endless and the kids can really get creative! To turn your ornaments into yummy smelling bits on the tree, add a little ground cinnamon or vanilla extract to your dough before baking. Side note: If you have pets in the house and you have added varnish or paint to these, be sure to hang them high enough to keep them from being eaten! Happy decorating!
Dough Ornament Recipe:
4 cups All purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 t. ground cinnamon (optional)
1 T. vanilla extract (optional)
*If you add the extract, leave out 1 T. of water so your dough is not too sticky*
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Blend flour and salt and then add warm water gradually. You can mix with a large spoon for a bit, but final mixing will be kneading with your hands. It will be similar in texture to chilled sugar cookie dough. Roll it out on a floured surface and cut with cookie cutters. Be sure to poke a hole using a straw or toothpick before baking! Bake approximately 1 hour or until hard. Allow to cool completely before painting or decorating. These will keep indefinitely but the cinnamon or vanilla scent will fade away in time.
