If you're looking for an easy Christmassy DIY to do this year, this is the one. It smells like Christmas and looks like anything you want it to. Just roll out some cinnamon applesauce dough and enjoy a spectacularly scented Christmas.
Christmas isn't just the season of joy. It's the season of scent with bouquets of of cinnamon, vanilla, pine, and burning money wafting through the air. You have no idea how important the sense of smell is until you lose it.
One of the symptoms of Sinusitis is the loss of smell and taste. A few years ago I lost it all. I couldn't smell flowers or lasagna or anything. I also couldn't smell gut rot breath or dog poop so there was good and bad to the situation.
As soon as I got my sense of smell back, I started smelling everything in my path.
With Christmas approaching, my nose is moving into high gear again. I expect and want everything I pick up to be scented. Pine cones, candles and cookies are all lifted to my expectant nose. If they aren't scented, I get incensed.
So how do you make them?
Cinnamon Applesauce scented ornaments. All it is, is equal parts cinnamon and applesauce. That's it. Roll it out, cut it with cookie cutters and let it dry.
Materials/Ingredients
- Cinnamon
- Applesauce
- Rolling pin
- Cookie cutters
- Sparkles
Method
Mix together equal parts applesauce and cinnamon until it forms a dough.
If you want to use other spices like nutmeg or cardamom, mix your dry ingredients first, then add them to the applesauce.
It'll look like regular cookie dough. Shockingly so, in fact.
Roll the dough out and if you want sparkles, add sparkles on top.
Then just use your cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
I bought this Moose shaped cookie cutter for the occasion but you can get a similar one (nicer shape actually) here.
Carefully lift the "cookies" up and place them on a cookie sheet, punch a hole in them so you can hang them and bake at 200° F for at least 3 hours. (You can also dry them on the counter but it'll take days.)
Adding realistic touches from nature will elevate the holiday ambiance. Note the careful application of sparkles, the perfect plop of poop which also smells like apples and cinnamon. Unless you happen to have have sinusitis.
Easy DIY Scented Ornaments.
Just equal parts applesauce and cinnamon make these easy and fast to whip up, plus you can customize them however you want with a cookie cutter.
I've added links to some worthy cookie cutters for 2020 in the "Notes".
Ingredients
- 1 cup applesauce
- 1 cup cinnamon
- nutmeg (optional)
- cardamom (optional)
- clove (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 F.
- Mix together your dry ingredients if you're using more than just cinnamon. (you can use any mix, just make sure the total of dry equals the total of applesauce).
- Mix the dry ingredients with applesauce with a fork and then with your fingers until you have a dough.
- Roll the dough out to ¼". If you'd like to add sparkles do it now by sprinkling them over the rolled out dough. Press them in by going over them once or twice with a rolling pin.
- Cut the dough out with any cookie cutter of your choice. Using a straw, cut a hole in the shape for you to run an ornament hanger or string through. Transfer "cookies" to a baking sheet and bake at 200 F for 2 hours or until dry.
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To store these from year to year just put them in an airtight container. The scent will last for years.
Honestly, if you're looking for a spur of the moment, fun, little crafty thing to do this holiday season these are the way to go. Play some carols, grab a stemmed glass and throw on your crafting frock.
You can make the ornaments as simple as mine or get way more creative with them. You're only limited by your imagination.
And maybe the size of your bottle of wine.
It's very humid here. The citrus slice ornaments I made in October have already tried to re moisten, grr.
Do you think adding some school / crafters glue to the dough might help them last longer?
I'm a bit concerned about molding. Since everything here does / or at least gives it a really good go of it.
Could these be painted once dry?!
Or would that cover the scent? :(
At the very least maybe after cutting out shapes I can sprinkle glitter on in patterns and press (gently).
Kinda thinking boring rounds or snowy flake shapes for all year. Then add different colored glitter for stripes or polka dots. Or something. (I hate polka dots. They make no sense! Lol. Maybe just stripes then.)
I made these yesterday! You inspired me with your affiliate links, so I bought the middle finger cookie cutter to make "FU 2020" or "FU Covid" decorations. The recipe turned out great. Thanks for sharing!
I made these many years ago - pretty much the same directions, but instead of cookie cutters I pushed the dough into ceramic cookie molds to get an imprint on them before drying them. They lasted forever!
Love it - and my dog would love these hanging on a tree in the house, especially if there was a piece of furniture adjacent to the tree that allowed him to eat the ones higher up on the tree too.
And I love the framed chalk board idea
I can't function without a chalkboard somewhere in my house, lol. ~ karen!
excited to try these, thanks
Just reading this post now and I can't believe I am the first to ask where did you find that adorable moose cookie cutter? I have been all over Cambridge searching for one to no avail.
Thanks!
I did so expect the chalkboard to say Merry Christmoose.
Nice!
For those near an IKEA, the last time I was there, they had a cute cookie cutter pack that included a moose, fox, squirrel, hedgehog, bear and snail.
OMG! REALLY!!!??? I must go. NOW. That sounds like a GREAT package. ~ karen
Love your chalkboard artwork, too....I made the ornaments with my kids many years ago and kept them for a few years....doubt if the smell lasted tho. Also, same thing with me after a bout with sinus...no taste...many years ago...don't have it back to this day...and it is awful when cooking. Funny thing...or not...hubby can't smell.....we make a weird couple! LOL. I tell myself how good stuff tastes anyway so no lost weight:( And the moose poop made me laugh!
It's incredibly impressive that you knew to poke a hole in one of their antlers so that they would hang perfectly like that when strung up. Wow, just wow.
I *tried* making these tonight. Total FAIL. How is that possible? Well, my oven runs 50 degrees hoter than whatever setting you put it on and 200 is the lowest setting which means my oven is really 250 degrees, DO NOT think that you can make these if your oven is 50 degrees off. You can't. And since I still can't smell, they didn't just burn, they burned for 2 1/2 hours. Noses are important, even if they do smell farts sometimes.