Cinnamon Dough Ornaments

Make plenty of these ornaments to hang on the Christmas tree, a door wreath, and in kitchen windows. You can create cinnamon decorations for any occasion by just changing cookie cutters.

Children will need supervision with measuring.

This project is rated EASY to do.

What You Need
 

• 1 1/2 cups ground cinnamon
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup white school glue (like Elmer's)
• Bowl
• Plastic food wrap
• Rolling pin
• Wax paper
• Cookie cutters or a knife
• Ribbon or yarn for hanging
• Straw

 
How To Make It
 

1. Mix cinnamon, applesauce, and glue together in a bowl. The dough should be as thick as cookie dough. Add a bit of water if the dough is too stiff.
2. Remove from bowl and knead. Put it back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for at least a half hour.
3. Remove the dough, knead again to make sure it's smooth. Flatten/roll the dough between waxed paper until it's between 1/4" thick and 1/8" thick.
4. Cut out desired shapes, use a straw to punch a hole for the ribbon to hang. The circle of dough will pull out with the straw.
5. Gently place the shapes on a piece of clean wax paper. They will take 3-5 days to dry, and you will need to turn them over a couple of times a day for them to dry evenly and flat.

Don't be surprised to see that the ornaments get smaller during the drying process. Keep this in mind when you pick out the cookie cutters for your designs. You will also notice that if you do not turn the ornaments over often enough while they are drying, the edges of the ornaments will curl.

When dry, thread a piece of ribbon or yarn through the hole to hang.

SHAPE IDEAS: Tree, Apple, House (gingerbread), Bell, Heart, Goose, Gingerbread Man, Star...

Optional Painting ideas - use acrylic paints or fabric paints to paint details, like white 'frosting' on a gingerbread man or gingerbread house, or eyes on a goose.

Pumpkin Waffle Drops
Makes: 36 Cookies

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
2 1/2 cups flour
nuts, raisins, and/or chocolate chips

Preheat waffle iron. Cream sugar and margarine until fluffy. Mix in eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients and mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto heated waffle iron, 1" apart. Bake approximately 6-9 cookies at a time. Close lid and bake for 1-1/2 minutes. Time carefully. Remove with a fork and allow to cool.

Fortune Cookies
Makes: 30 Cookies

As you can see, you can have a lot of fun with fortune cookies. Or, for all those romantics who love to propose with fortune cookies: you can impress her with your baking skills as well as your clever proposal!

1 cup flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup egg whites (whites of about 4 large eggs)
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons vanilla


Prepare fortunes by typing or printing poetry, proverbs, or your own thoughts on 3 by 1/2-inch strips of paper. Place near oven. Place a straight-sided pan or bowl and a muffin pan near the oven, as well, for shaping and cooling the cookies. Have a pair of clean cotton gloves handy to protect hands while shaping the hot cookies.

Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease baking sheets well. In a bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add the oil and egg whites. Beat until smooth. Beat in the water and vanilla. Drop batter by level tablespoonfuls onto the well-greased baking sheets. Spread out the batter with the back of a spoon into a 4-inch circle. Try only 1 or 2 cookies per sheet at first, until you get the knack of shaping the cookies. Then, advance to 4 circles per sheet as your speed and shaping talent improves. Bake at 300°F for 14 minutes or until light golden brown. Don't underbake the cookies or they will tear during shaping.

To shape: Wear cotton gloves. Using a wide spatula, remove one cookie at a time from the oven and flip into your gloved hand. Place and hold one fortune paper in the center of the cookie and quickly fold the cookie in half. Grasp the ends of the cookie and draw it gently down over the edge of the straight-sided pan or bowl to get that "fortune-cookie" curve. (The slit in the cookie will be facing up as you shape the cookie over the pan.) Place the cookie, ends down, in one of the muffin pan cups to cool. This will help them hold their shape while cooling.

If the cookie hardens too fast, return it to the oven for about 1 minute to make it more bendable. Repeat for remaining batter, using a cold, well-greased baking sheet for each batch.

1-2-3-4 Cake
1 Cup Butter or Margarine, softened
2 Cups Sugar
3 Cups Flour
4 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
2 teaspoons Mexican Vanilla
2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

Cream butter and sugar in mixing bowl. Add eggs, one at a time. Slowly add milk. Mix baking powder into flour, and combine with wet ingredients until smooth.

Bake at 350°F until done. This cake takes a little over an hour in a bundt pan. 8" layers would take less time, and a 9x13" would probably be about an hour also.

This is an old recipe and was memorized by its numbers when paper/recipe cards were not always readily available. We,ve added our very own Mexican Vanilla to make even better. Why don't you try it. A very easy and delicious cake to make.

Mexican Cinnamon Cookies 1 C. butter, softened 1/2 C. confectioners' sugar 2 1/2 C. sifted flour 1 tsp. mexican cinnamon 1 tsp. mexican vanilla 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 C. granulated sugar or 3/4 C. confectioners' sugar 1/2 tsp. cinnamon In large bowl with electric mixer at high speed, beat butter until light and fluffy. At low speed, beat in 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, flour, cinnamon, mexican vanilla and salt just until combined. Dough will be stiff. Shape into a ball; wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To make ball cookies, roll into 3/4-inch balls. To make flat cookies, roll into 1-inch balls and flatten with fingers to about 1/4 inch thickness. Place 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Roll hot cookies in mixture. Cool and sprinkle with remaining mixture.

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