This is one of my favorite Christmas past-time crafts that my children and I used to bake together. It’s where crafting meets baking, two of my favorite extracurricular activities!

Basic Salt Dough Recipe for Snowflake Ornaments:

Ingredients:

1 cup regular table salt
2 cups regular white flour (not self-rising flour)
1 cup water, room temperature
1 drinking straw (or more, for extra bakers!)
Different colored ribbon
Silver Dragees (those tiny, silver, ball-shaped candy sprinkles)

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 200 degrees

1) Mix flour with salt in a medium size mixing bowl.

2) Slowly add water, and mix dough until combined and sticky.

3) On wax paper, roll the dough out to about ¼ inch thickness. *If thicker, you’ll need to bake longer, making sure not to burn the edges.

4) Cut dough with snowflake cookie cutters. (I also cut out stars)

5) Carefully place each snowflake on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

6) After snowflakes are arranged on cookie sheet, use a drinking straw to punch out holes at the top of each ornament. If the straw hole is too big, use a skewer or the tip of a potato peeler to carve out a hole. Discard the dough hole.

7) If you are using those cute little Silver Dragee balls to decorate your Snowflakes with, decorate your snowflakes with them *before* baking. Warning: Do not decorate snowflakes with any other candy or decoration besides the silver dragees before baking! It will melt all over your snowflake and burn!

8) Bake for 4 hours in a pre-heated 200 degree oven. *If you made your cut-outs thicker then ¼ then bake for about 10-15 minutes longer, frequently checking to make sure edges do not burn.

9) After snowflakes are done baking, cool on a cookie rack for 30 - 60 minutes before handling. They can be decorated once they have cooled completely.

You can decorate your beautiful snowflakes in a variety of ways:

Glue and glitter, Glue and beads, paints, water color, ribbon, metallic piping, hang bells off of the snowflakes with pretty ribbons glued to the back. Opalescent snow/glitter looks fantastic on the snowflakes, too!

Cookie Cutter Suggestions:

Any Christmas cookie cutters will suffice. Use a drinking glass for a circle. You can also use a gingerbread cookie cutter upside down to make a reindeer.


To Color The Dough:

Use food coloring and the chart that comes on the package for proper color mixing. Add to the dough after the dough has been mixed. Blend the food coloring through the dough with your hands to incorporate it all, and to make sure that it does not streak. Continue with the baking directions after you have mixed in the color to the dough. You can always break up the dough into smaller portions and color each portion with a different color.

To Paint:

Use water color, Crayola paints, or any paints that you have available. Wait until baked cookie cutouts are completely cooled off before painting, or the color will run. After painting, allow to dry for at least 1 hour before handling the cutouts.

Icing Your Cutouts:

You can ice the cookie cutouts, all though they will still not be edible and should only be used for decoration. Make a basic icing recipe, and add 4 teaspoons of Egg White Powder to the recipe. Whip with a mixer for 7 minutes, and decorate the cookie cutouts. Allow the cutouts to dry for several hours~ the icing will dry hard to the touch.

To Hang:

Choose a piece of colored ribbon that matches your completed ornament. Cut ribbon the length that is best for hanging the ornament on your Christmas tree. Loop the ribbon through the cut-out hole, and tie it in a double knot. Then tie the ends into a pretty bow. Hang on your Christmas tree or around the house. The kids will feel so special showing off their baked works of art!

Merry Christmas from Cooking for Kids! Enjoy!