Trying my Hand at DIY Salt Dough Ornaments

In a previous Saturday Meaderings, I share beautiful salt dough ornaments by both Miss Mustard Seed and Eleanor Rose Home. My recollection of salt dough ornaments are from childhood, where they are rather goofy and painted bright colors. But times have changed and wooden molds are certainly more sophisticated. I find a pretty mold and try my hand at making salt dough ornaments.

Wooden Molds

I order two wooden cookie molds. The pinecone one arrived very quickly, however, the other is still en route. If you order these, note where they are coming from….obviously the one that hasn’t arrived is somewhere out of the country. Of course, I didn’t realize that when I placed the order.

If you google wooden cookie molds there are various resources from Amazon to Etsy.

Making the Dough

There are two types of dough you can make. Simple salt dough or gingerbread salt dough. The difference is in the color of the dough~whereas one is more white and the other is tinted brown by adding cinnamon.

Since I am making pinecones, I mix up a batch of the gingerbread salt dough. However, I don’t have enough cinnamon so I do half cinnamon and half allspice. I must say, the kitchen certainly smells of Christmas while these are baking.

I make one batch of dough giving me 7 pinecone cookies. Depending on the size and detail of your mold, your quantity will vary. It is also easy to double or triple the dough recipe. The equipment you will need:

• Cookie molds
• Baking Sheets
• Parchment Paper
• Toothpick or skewer
• Ribbon or Twine
• Scissors
• Tapestry or large needle

The ingredients for the gingerbread salt dough are:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 3/4 cup cinnamon
• 3/4 cup of water

If you are making regular salt dough the ingredients measurements are slightly different:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup water

Mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add water and stir together with a spoon. Using the paddle attachment, mix the dough until it is brought together and all dry ingredients are absorbed. Dough will be crumbly but should hold together when squeezed.

Turn out dough on a floured surface and knead for 30 seconds to bring dough together in a ball.

Using the Mold

Lightly brush the mold with flour.

Press the dough into the mold.

I then press the dough down using a bench scraper to make sure the dough is in all the nooks and crannies. However, I leave the surface of the dough slightly higher than the plane of the mold. It seems easier to remove the cookie impression this way.

Tap out the dough or loosen one edge and it should easily release from the mold. Place cookies on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Before baking, I use a wooden skewer to start a hole for the ribbon.

Bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes with decorative side up. Flip over ornament and cook for another 30 minutes. Put on a cooling rack to cool.

The salt in the salt dough ornament rises to the surface, as you will note the pinecone is lighter than the pre-baked color.

Some things to Note

The skewer hole is not big enough to use a needle to string the ribbon. My husband drills a larger hole so I can use this needle to get the ribbon through. I am debating whether I should add a little glitter, but I feel like these particular ornaments look more realistic glitter-less.

I will probably try making these again using the standard salt dough (no cinnamon) and see how they turn out.

With all the beautiful molds and resin replicas of vintage molds, I can see this being an annual DIY.

Have you ever made these before? If so, let me know how it went.

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