Remember we found this angel in Grandma's attic?" - "Joanie made this little wreath when she was only four years old." Unpacking past Christmas ornaments is also an occasion to unpack wonderful family memories. Aged decorations may reveal one or two that look like cookies or ceramics, but in fact are made from varnished bread dough. Prepared much like cookies, they are long-lasting when following a recipe that uses salt as a preservative.
Inedible dough art ornaments are easy and fun to make for any age group. A family, couple, or church group can make tree ornaments, gift ties, and stocking stuffers in an hour or two.
"Oh, I don't have the time. I'm all thumbs. I could never make attractive ornaments." Such reactions as these usually turn into delighted comments after half an hour's try at bread art. The basic recipe constrains only three ingredients: flour, salt, and water. The dough is rolled and cut out with cookie cutters. The "cookies" are baked in the kitchen oven or left to air-dry. That's all.
Enticing aromas
After producing your first batch of stars and bells, it's easy to become a little more adventurous. Not only food coloring, but also acrylic paint, sugar sprinkles, and glitter can be added after baking to help create gingerbread dolls, Santa Clauses, and animals. Even delicious smells can accompany the ornament by adding generous amounts of cinnamon or instant coffee to the dough.
Dough art began with bread - this staff of life has been baked for millenia. From an Egyptian tomb dating to about 3500 B.C., a basket of bread was found preserved. In the Indus River valley in Pakistan, a bread molding dating around 2500 B.C. was unearthed.
In China dough figures, dating from 100 B.C., were used in ritual plays. Bread art continued as a folk craft. Before the 1949 revolution, Buddhist children were encouraged to study religious sculptures and reproduce their distinctive features in dough. Today, hand-made dough figures of every-day objects, farm animals, and both legendary and popular opera characters are sold on the streets of China - especially around the New Year.
South American bread figures can be found in early Indian tombs - a tradition that continues to this day. And brightly colored religious figures are made out of dough by villagers in Ecuador, then later exported for Christmas tree ornaments.
Baked postcards
During the Middle Ages in Switzerland, cakes were formed in carved wooden molds. Some patterns were as simple as modern cookie cutters, while others reflected the themes of everyday life, Bible stories, family crests, and political satire. Carving elaborate molds became an art, and families competed to create the most intricate and beautiful dough artwork. "Baked postcards," illustrating local scenes, were value as prized gifts. The practice continued until the end of the nineteenth century when mold-making and other handcrafts waned.
In the United States bread art moved from bakeries to artists' studios
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