Gingerbread Scented Salt Dough Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Can you add scent to salt dough? ›

You can use any herbs, flowers, spices or essences and oils for your scents. We chose to use a mixture of several of these to give each individually coloured dough a different scent. We used dried lavender flowers, fresh rosemary, cinnamon spice, ginger spice, vanilla essence and peppermint oil for our scents.

If you're looking for fun Christmas crafts this year, making salt dough gingerbread houses or Christmas decorations is a great idea. This is the perfect craft to get the look of gingerbread but still be able to enjoy it next year. Our salt dough creations look and smell amazing with the addition of cinnamon.

Salt dough is very simple to make, basically just flour, salt and water, and when you bake it it becomes very hard and will last forever if you keep it dry and clean.

The great thing about it is that the salt dough sculptures will harden if you leave them out to dry at room temperature. Depending on the size of the pieces, it will take 2 to 7 days to dry completely. Turn the pieces from time to time for faster drying. Oven dry the salt dough pieces.

Simple Scented Bath Salt Recipe

In a mixing bowl, add drops of the essential oil to the bath salt and mix well. Store in a glass jar. Add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the scented salts to a bath for a soothing, luxurious experience!

Mix together flour and salt in a bowl. Stir in water and drops of essential oil - combine until smooth. Use some extra flour to lightly dust countertop. Roll out dough until it's around ¼ inch thick.

Mineral-rich sea salt or Himalayan salt is much healthier to eat but doesn't work as well for DIY salt dough ornaments. Regular, cheap table salt from the cardboard canister at the store makes the best salt dough.

Fit Everything Together with Melted Sugar or Royal Icing

The second way is to use burnt sugar as your glue. Just melt C&H® Pure Granulated Cane Sugar in a pan on the stove, dip the gingerbread parts in and hold them together for a few seconds. Then, presto! You've created a solid house.

Well, TikTok user @tastyentertaining has the answer to all of our gingerbread house problems. She recommends using granulated sugar instead of royal icing to hold the walls together. How? Just melt the sugar in a pan over low heat.

Sadly, it's unlikely that you can repair a salt dough piece to look like it did before, says crafter and longtime Martha Stewart Living contributor Silke Stoddard. Much like trying to repair a baked cookie—you can't go back to the dough the way it was unbaked.

What do you seal salt dough with? ›

Mod Podge.

It's important to seal your ornaments once they're dried, so that they don't absorb moisture from the air. Use Mod Podge (in matte) to seal the dough and give them a more finished look.

Once you've formed your salt dough, you can cook the creations in the oven to make them set. Once baked, they will harden and can be painted and decorated after they cooled down!

Add the cooking oil to make the dough soft, pliable and smoother.

Make sure your oven is set to 150°f. This is SUPER IMPORTANT. I have seen others use hotter temperatures but I haven't been able to do so without getting puffiness. So, plain all-purpose flour, 150ºf oven and 1/4 inch thickness = no puffy ornaments.

In the recipe above, I added a couple of 'bells and whistles' to the recipe to make a smoother dough but the oil and glycerin are optional. These ornaments last for years. They are fun, easy, and inexpensive to make. You can even add scent, colors, glitter, paint, and beads if you like.

Also, if you have used alcohol inks, watercolors, or acrylic paint on salt dough, I highly recommend a light spray sealant as your first coat. This helps seal the color, and prevents bleeding or smearing. You can then apply a second and/or third coat of sealant as desired.

Add the cooking oil to make the dough soft, pliable and smoother. Put some of the dough on the baking paper, use your rolling pin and use your cookie cutter to make various shapes for hanging decorations or napkin rings. You can also mold the dough to make figurines or sculptures.

I also wanted the project to be super colorful! The solution, Salt Dough Hand Prints colored with Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers (because when you are managing this crew, paint is a nightmare).