Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

Each year, when I pull out the ornaments to decorate the tree, I am surprised that the cinnamon applesauce ornaments we made three years ago still smell wonderful and are still in one piece.  C was three when we made them; R was not even two.  I had never heard of cinnamon applesauce ornaments and I really did not expect them to last very long.  

Since it has been a few years since we last made them, I thought it would be fun to make a few more for our tree and a few to give as teacher gifts.  I have seen a few different recipes, so I'll share the one we have used.

Ingredients:

• cinnamon
• applesauce
• That's it, nothing else!  Use equal parts of each depending on how many ornaments you want to make.  We made fifteen this year and they came from three cups of cinnamon and three cups of applesauce.  You can use as little as half a cup of each ingredient.

Directions:

1. Mix the cinnamon and applesauce together until it feels like dough
2. Roll it out (we keep it thick, at least 1/4 inch - usually thicker)
3. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and place the ornaments on a cookie sheet
4. Use a straw to poke a hole in the top of the ornament; you have to do this now while the dough is still wet
5. Allow the ornaments to air dry (this will take at least twelve hours, but if you have thick ornaments like we do, it may take a day or two; our ornaments took two days to dry).  Once they start to get hard, I usually transfer them to a cooling rack so that air can circulate around the ornaments and so that they don't stick to my cookie sheets!
6. Once dry, tie a ribbon through the hole and hang on the tree or anywhere else you want to enjoy the cinnamon fragrance

Little Page Turners recently shared a recipe for cinnamon applesauce ornaments that they baked.  This will certainly shorten the amount of time you have to wait for them to be finished!  I only stuck with my air drying method because it was so successful for us; I'm afraid to change anything!