Make It Monday: Gingerbread Play Dough

The kids and I baked up a batch of gingerbread cookies. But instead of cookie dough, we used play dough; and in place of the sprinkles we used googly eyes and beads. And technically, instead of baking we smashed them up to make them again and again! Either way, the house smelled delicious!

 They were so excited to make the dough. We even had a couple extra helpers.

Dump the dry ingredients into a bowl. Jake was impressed by how pretty it looked with the different shades of brown.

Use your big strong muscles to mix it up.

 Add the wet ingredients.

 Combine well. Once it gets too thick to mix with the spoon, knead the dough with your hands.

They had a very hard time waiting until the dough was completely cool before they started cookie preparations. In fact, they didn't wait. They dough was still slightly warm when they first rolled out their dough and began cutting their shapes.

We had our very own bakery setup in the kitchen. 

 We baked up some traditional gingerbread men . . .

 and Christmas trees.

And some not-so-traditional cyclops trees with pink bellybuttons . . .

 and even a pet rock cookie.

We certainly have been busy. We are now officially open for business and taking orders for all your Christmas needs! 

The kids (ok, me too!) had so much fun rolling, cutting, and decorating our "cookies." They really did look and smell like the real things. Jake asked a few different times, "Can we bake these for real? They smell so good!" A tablespoon or two of some of these spices might be a little costly to be used for something like play dough, but I expect it to last a long time. In fact, the play dough we made last year is just about on its last leg. It's survived 3 kids for over a year. Definitely cost effective. I actually ended up finishing off a few of our spices to make this dough, so I'd better add them to the grocery list for our annual baking extravaganza coming up! Besides, now we'll have fresh spices for our real baked goods.

My favorite part was a conversation that took place between the 2 kids -

Jake: "Look, the candy canes look like J's for Jesus."

Alyssa: "And for Jacob!"

Jake: "Yeah, but Christmas isn't about me. It's all about Jesus."

And he couldn't be more right.



Gingerbread Play Dough
Ingredients:
2 c flour                                           1 Tbs cinnamon
1 c salt                                            1 Tbs nutmeg
2 Tbs cream of tartar                      2 Tbs vegetable oil
2 Tbs ginger                                    1 1/2  c boiling water

Directions:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Add in the vegetable oil and boiling water.

3. Mix well. Once the mixture becomes too thick to stir with a spoon, use your hands to knead it until it is soft and thoroughly combined.

4. Allow mixture to cool before playing.