I Tested a Holiday Baking Activity With My Toddler So You Don’t Have To
Here’s a fun baking project you can do with children during the holiday season.
Travelling 3000 miles to see family. Going Christmas shopping. Having holiday parties.
These are all holiday traditions that I would do every year when spending the holidays with my family. Now with the ongoing pandemic, all of our regular holiday traditions have been cancelled. This will be the first year we won’t be travelling back for the holidays to see our families. Instead, I’ve had to adapt and find other ways to celebrate the holidays.
I have been baking with my toddler ever since she was a baby. She went from sitting in a baby lounger watching me bake, to being an active participant and baking alongside next to me.
Baking christmas cookies has been a family tradition since I was a child, and this year will be the first year where I won’t bake with my family for Christmas. However, the silver lining of this pandemic is that it pushes you to think creatively to pass the time in different ways.
I recently came across the activity of making salt dough ornaments. Hmm, what are salt dough ornaments? I pondered. I proceeded to read numerous blogs such as this one with recipes and explanations of the process. In all my years, I had never heard of this concept before.
I learned that it is a dough that you bake and then turn into your own do-it-yourself ornaments. We’ve always bought our own ornaments or I would make them with craft materials for my students, so I was very intrigued about baking ornaments!
I was excited when I learned about this activity, and tried it with my toddler the very next day. Here’s my experience of baking salt dough ornaments and how you can get children involved in this holiday baking activity:
Items needed to make the salt dough ornaments:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 cup of table salt
- 3/4 cup of water
Tools needed:
- mixing bowl
- spatula
- measuring cups
- cookie cutters (I used the holiday cookie cutters)
- straw or toothpick
- parchment paper or non stick spray
- baking sheet
For decorations (All Optional):
- Tempera paint and paint brushes
- Glitter (I recommend edible glitter!)
- Ribbon
- Photos
- Modge Podge (for a glossy finishing touch)
Directions:
First this is to preheat your oven to the lowest temperature, mine was 200 C. You want a low temperature as you don’t want to overcook the cookies, only to have them harden. We have a stepping stool that my toddler loves standing on and we use while we bake together.
Take out a large mixing bowl. Measure the flour. My toddler loved helping with this step. I modeled to her how to hold the measuring cup as I levelled the flour. She then poured the flour in the mixing bowl. Same with the salt. She held the measuring cup while I poured the salt inside.
She poured it into the bowl. She mixed the flour and salt together and then I poured the water. She’s had a lot of practice mixing with the spatula! She also loved to touch the flour to feel its texture. If the dough doesn’t stick, just add more water, or if it’s too sticky add more flour. It’s a very forgiving dough.
Once you mix the dough, form it into a ball and then place it on a flat surface with some flour. Take note that this dough will be pretty hard. Also, be careful NOT to taste it as it is very salty. My toddler offered me a piece of the dough and I opened my mouth willingly but had to spit it out afterwards as this dough is NOT for eating!
It is very similar to sugar cookie dough in that you need to knead it with a rolling pin about 1/4 inch in thickness. I gave my toddler her own rolling pin but she wanted to use mine!
Once the dough was kneaded, we made shapes with our cookie cutters! This is the first time a baby girl has used cookie cutters. I introduced them to her by telling her what they are and how to use them.
I also believe it’s important to leave children room to explore on their own so I watched as she took one of the shapes and made it into her own bracelet! I love how baking fostered creativity like that.
Next, we put the finished shapes on a baking sheet with parchment paper. You can also use non-stick spray. I used a straw to make holes for the opening to put a ribbon through.
For my first batch, I forgot to do this before they went in the oven, and punched the hole about halfway through which was fine. But I would recommend punching the hole prior to the cookies going in the oven!
Once the baking sheet was full of cookies, I put them in the oven. I baked them for 1 hour and then flipped them with a spatula and baked them for another 1 hour.
This depends on the temperature of your oven so I would check about halfway through the baking time. They should have a color but not turned brown. I let them cool on the stove top (far afar from little hands to reach!) for about 1 hour.
After they have cooled, it’s time to get creative!
We used tempera paint to decorate the cookies. With paint, I have my toddler wear a painting smock at the table, with a waterproof tablecloth and washcloth close by. I guided her in painting the ornaments by teaching her to dip the paint in the brush and swish back and forth on the cookie.
Of course, she wanted to also paint on the tablecloth! I was surprised that she didn’t try to eat them — it’s as if she knew that they were not for eating! We added glitter for extra pizazz amidst my husband’s dismay… but alas it added a touch of sparkle to our holiday ornaments. After the painted ornaments had dried, I brushed Modge Podge over them to add a finished glossy touch.
Here are some other variations:
-Photo ornament pictures: I tried this and it worked! Prior to baking, I cut a larger shape with a knife around the cookie cutter shape to fit a photo. Once they were baked and cooled, I painted the frame shape. After the paint dried, I used dot glues to stick a photo on the back of the ornament — and voila! It worked! You can also use Modge Podge to add a seal glossy finish.
-Handprint ornaments: Last year I went to go have my daughters hand and foot printed by a professional service…so I thought hey it can’t be that hard to do her handprint at home right? YES IT WAS! It was a struggle to get her hand print as she kept wiggling…so it took a few tries and with that, I had to modify it a bit. Her foot print was a bit easier as I was able to have her just stand on the dough.
-Dying the dough with food coloring: Prior to baking, you can divide the dough and add food coloring! This is great if you want to add color variations to your dough instead of painting afterwards.
-Add fragrance: Another variation you could do is add an fragrance to your dough before baking. The one that is highly recommended is the orange essence oil. I actually bought this one but sadly it was delayed in shipping and I didn’t want to wait that long to try this recipe. I will try it again with the fragrance another time though!
Recommendations:
We had a lot of fun with the activity and I recommend trying with your children at home! For toddlers specifically, based on my experience I recommend the following things:
-slowing down and explaining the process to them (ie: talking about the materials and tools, what step you are doing, etc) either by language or non-verbal by showing them each tool and ingredient.
- involve them with the experience with all 5 senses (ie: holding the tools, smelling and touching the dough, rolling the dough, decorating, etc)
-take breaks in between! The painting took some time as we had to stop and take breaks in between as their attention span is limited at that age.
I am planning to make these every year with my daughter. The best thing is that these ornaments will last for years and will make excellent keepsakes, as well as gifts for loved ones! I am all for making new family traditions that are engaging, straight forward and creative.
