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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

You can paint a coat of glossy decoupage glue over the entire ornament to seal and protect it, and to give it a shiny finish. You can also spritz it with a light coat of polyurethane spray. Both methods, along with the salt acting as a natural preservative, help to extend the ornament's longevity.

Salt dough is susceptible to moisture, meaning it will pull any moisture from the surrounding air. This causes your projects to turn soggy or even crumble.

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.

Why do you need bicarbonate of soda in gingerbread? ›

Bicarbonate of soda, or baking soda, is an alkali which is used to raise soda breads and full-flavoured cakes such as gingerbread, fruit cake, chocolate cake and carrot cake. It needs an acid (as well as moisture) to activate it so is often combined with cream of tartar, yogurt, buttermilk or milk.

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.

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

You want to bake them until they're hardened. They will harden a little more once you remove them from the oven and let them cool but you want them to have a good hard texture before you remove them from the oven. The bottoms will be slightly browned but the tops should still be dough colored.

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).