Cookies and Cupcakes

It was a gorgeous day! Hooray hooray!

I snuck off to the beach, left my Christmas cookie project for "later"...

                       

Only a few gulls came to bicker over the bread I brought, but the dunes were full of beautiful rare (to me) snow buntings! So pretty, like like animated  cupcakes in their pink, white and black winter plumage.

They seem to love the seeds of the dune grasses.

Back home I got busy making cookie dough. Every year I try a new recipe in addition to classic cutout sugar cookies and snowballs. This year my NEW cookies are 100% calorie free! And inedible...

Being a mix of cinnamon, applesauce and Elmer's glue.

Aren't they great!

I made lots, for gifts, and package tie-ons, and ornaments for the tree...

The extras were tied on raffia, as garlands.Oh they smell so good!

recipe from my online friend Melody, with her permission, below.

I used Saigon Cinnamon, great price for bulk amounts at Atlantic Spice Company

love

            lizzy

...............gone to the beach...

Cinnamon Ornaments

What you'll need:

1 1/2 cups ground cinnamon
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup white school glue (like Elmer's)
Bowl
Plastic food wrap
Rolling pin
Wax paper
Cookie cutters or a knife
Ribbon or yarn for hanging
Straw

How to make it:

Mix cinnamon, applesauce, and glue together in a bowl. The dough should be as thick as cookie dough. Add a bit of water if the dough is too stiff.

Remove from bowl and knead. Put it back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for at least a half hour.

Remove the dough, knead again to make sure it's smooth. Flatten/roll the dough between waxed paper until it's between 1/4" thick and 1/8" thick.

Cut out desired shapes, use a straw to punch a hole for the ribbon to hang. The circle of dough will pull out with the straw.

Gently place the shapes on a piece of clean wax paper. They will take 3-5 days to dry, and you will need to turn them over a couple of times a day for them to dry evenly and flat.

Don't be surprised to see that the ornaments get smaller during the drying process. Keep this in mind when you pick out the cookie cutters for your designs. You will also notice that if you do not turn the ornaments over often enough while they are drying, the edges of the ornaments will curl.

Beach note: I air dried mine overnight THEN in the oven on Warm for two days. I turned the oven off at night & of I was going out but it stayed warm. Mine did not shrink too much and I turned them only a few times. The tiny cooky cutters made cute little ornies. :-)

When dry, thread a piece of ribbon or yarn through the hole to hang.

Enjoy!