Hand Print Ornaments

Started: December 20, 2007
Finished: December 20, 2007
Made For: myself, my mother, my MIL
Recipe From: the internet
Materials: flour, salt, water, vegetable oil, Mod Podge, ribbon
Tools: Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, ye olde oven, paint brush
Cost: virtually nothing, as i had all the supplies on hand
Would I Do It Again? yes...
Notes / Comments: i have a memory of my Mum making dough ornaments when i was little... a vague memory of candy cane twists and possibly some cookie cutter shapes (wreaths maybe?)... i also remember the inevitable crumbling of said ornaments over the years, after many moves and not-so-delicate handling...

i saw this recipe for baking clay posted on a message board and i thought that i would capture J's hand as a keepsake of his first Christmas... in doing so, i learned a few things...

☆ our kid's hands are huge for a 8½ month old... or, at least, they're bigger than any round shape cutting tool we own...

☆ babies don't like to have their hand squished in dough, unless they can totally annihilate it... to get 6 passable prints, i had to do about 12 tries as he kept messing up the dough on me...

☆ even though the recipe said it would take about 1½ hours to bake, it actually took closer to 3... stupid altitude...

☆ sealing stuff with Mod Podge is time consuming, messy, and will ruin your nice cooling racks... note to self: next time use spray sealant...

☆ the Sharpie you use to write the details on the back of the ornament will bleed into the dough... the end result is homemade and kitschy and that's okay...

Baking Clay Recipe - makes approx. 8 ornaments

1 cup salt
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1-1½ cups cold water

preheat oven to 250°... combine dry ingredients, making sure salt is fully incorporated (i used my stand mixer with great results)... slowly add water until you have a soft dough... roll out on a lightly floured surface until between ¼-½ of an inch thick... press child's hand/foot into dough and cut around with a pizza cutter... place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, or until hard to the touch... flip over and bake for another 30 minutes...

some helpful hints:

☆ you can tint the water with food colouring
☆ you can add glitter to the dough as well
☆ ornaments will swell a little (approx. 5%) as it bakes
☆ if the dough puffs up or swells too much during baking, try adding up to ¼ cup more salt in the next batch...
☆ you can also try dissolving the salt in the water before mixing in order to incorporate it better
☆ these suckers are heavy, so don't make them too big if you want to hang them on your tree
☆ don't over-bake them or seal them too soon... two of my nicest ornaments have since developed cracks in them and i read this was probably due to the dough being too dry... i suspect part of it was having them in the oven so long and sealing them too soon...