Easy Salt Dough Ornaments!

We wanted to do something a little different with our Christmas tree this year so we decided to make our own ornaments! I put this off for a long time because I thought it would be too difficult or time consuming. I was surprised to find out that these ARE really simple and quick to make! We used gingerbread cookie cutters this time and we decided to use some of the more natural ingredients around the kitchen to color these with. We used turmeric for the yellow, cinnamon for the reddish-brown, cocoa for the dark grey and just plain salt dough for white. The “people” came out all different shapes, colors and sizes so the boys called them “Gingerpeople of the world”. I thought it was a great idea! The boys had so much fun making these that I know we will make them again next year! I am told that these will preserve until next year, but we might decide to donate them instead of keeping them in the RV all year.

Gingerpeople of the world recipe:
4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 cup salt
Various seasonings for color

Instructions: 
Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix ingredients together. It will feel really dry, just keep mixing. The dryer the dough the better they dry out while cooking!
At this point you can separate into a few bowls and add the desired color. We used cinnamon, turmeric, and cocoa powder!
Roll out until about 1/8 inch thick.
We rolled the dough right on the cookie sheet so we didn’t have to move them after we cut them out.
Bake at 325 for about 1 hour or until hard. We have a convection oven so we did about an hour and a half.
Let cool completely on a wire rack and then decorate!
Varnish can be used once decorated to seal the ornaments if you want to keep them for next year!

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Chocolate covered Moonshine cherries with vanilla bean cream center!

Think that was a mouth full???

Wait until you have tried these AMAZINGLY delicious, easy to make, home made cordial cherries!

These are very simple to make… the bad thing is you want to eat them right away!!

The cherries have to set for TWO weeks at a minimum so that the vanilla cream will liquefy.

The picture above is from Day one. Of course I had to cut one open and try it!

Ingredients:

• 40 Ole Smokey Moonshine cherries
• 1/4 cup (2 oz) butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 tbsp light corn syrup
• 2 tbsp reserved cherry liquid (can substitute cherry liqueur)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 lb semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 tsp liquid Invertase *** (SEE NOTE)

{NOTE} If you choose to use regular maraschino cherries you will need to use the invertase if you want the cream to liquefy.

Instructions:

The day before, remove the amount of cherries you will need from the liquid and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in freezer overnight.

Mix the butter, corn syrup, cherry liquid, vanilla, and powdered sugar until you have a workable dough ball. You don’t want it sticky, but you don’t want it to be too hard it cracks. You can’t mess this up… just add more powdered sugar if it is too sticky.

Remove Cherries from freezer.

Take about a tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten it in your palm. Place the cherry in the middle and wrap it up.

Finish the rest of these and freeze until firm. (I did mine overnight)

Melt chocolate in double boiler. Using two forks dip the cherries in the chocolate and set on wax paper. All to dry.

Inspect the cherries to see that all spots are covered with chocolate creating a seal so when the center liquefies it does not leak out. If not completely covered then re-dip.

Place in a tightly covered dish and allow to sit in a cool, dry place for a minimum of two weeks!

Enjoy!! (To be enjoyed responsibly)

**~*~* I will update the blog with pictures of the liquified center in two weeks*~*~**

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