Trims Worth Their Salt

This clever crafter’s Christmas “baking” has no calories!

A garlic press makes fun ‘fur’ for mitten cuffs.

The big mixer whirs and flour puffs as I add it to the bowl and watch the soft dough form. With Christmas fast approaching, I’m busy decorating and baking with Rose Marie Lynn of Macomb, Illinois.

It’s not cookies that she and her Dough Delights crew turn out by the thousands, but beautiful salt dough ornaments! Last year, they made 35,000—almost half of them personalized—to sell at craft shows, by mail order and on the Web.

“Today, we’ll be making Snowflake Family ornaments, one of our most popular designs,” Rose Marie says. The sample looks intricate! Let’s hope this rookie can cut it…

7:15 a.m.» Before her four employees come in, I help Rose Marie mix salt dough in her busy little factory—a converted garage on the farm where she and husband Steve raise corn and soybeans.

“I’m very particular and make the dough myself,” she says. We start with regular table salt—but run it through a food processor for a finer texture.

“I started making salt dough ornaments in the 1980s. A cousin showed me how when I was looking for something to make for a church bazaar. I’ve tried just about every craft, but what I like about this is it uses simple things found in your kitchen.”

Rose Marie and Steve Lynn have a salty side business on their farm.

Dough deliberations. Using a noodle cutter, Rose Marie Lynn shows Ann how to cut hatbands for heads on salt dough ornaments.

Heavy on the Salt

Rose Marie has me dump 2-1/2 cups of salt into a commercial mixer with 5-gallon bowl. Then I add water and flour for a batch that will yield more than 150 ornaments.

“Salt dough is the color of bread dough,” she explains. “But we want this to be white for our snowflakes. I add white liquid food coloring—squeeze out four big ‘glubs’ from the bottle.” Like magic, the dough takes on a blizzard hue.

7:30 a.m.» Next, we mix up a small batch of red dough and another of green in a regular kitchen-sized food processor. These colors are for the snowflake families’ hats.

7:45 a.m.» It feels like soft sugar-cookie dough as I shape some into the size of a ball, flatten it slightly and feed it to a pizza-dough roller. “We rolled by hand until our production increased and I bought this machine used from a restaurant supply,” says Rose Marie.
In seconds, the dough emerges. “Catch it, fold it in half and run it through the machine a few more times until it’s about a 1/4-inch thick and perfectly smooth.”
Each time through the machine, the dough gets wider…thinner…and harder to catch!

Cutting Up a Storm

8 a.m.» We use 3-1/2-inch cookie cutters, filling aluminum baking sheets with 6-pointed snowflakes. Rose Marie has a huge inventory of cutters, many purchased, but some she’s made herself. Not thinking, I almost nibble on a scrap of dough!

I stamp away, striving for nice, clean shapes. An Exacto knife comes in handy for a gentle push when the dough wants to stick in the snowflake cutter tips.
When the tray is full, we brush a thin layer of glitter glue over the snowflakes and insert a hanger in each one. “The hanger is nothing fancy,” Rose Marie points out. “We snip paper clips in half, using the loop from each end.”

9 a.m.» Next, I help make little round heads with stocking caps—one for each member of a future customer’s family—to add to the snowflakes. Dough Delights ornaments come with two heads. Some designs have up to 20.

No two are alike. Dough Delights will add free personalization and the year to family ornaments.

With help and encouragement from the friendly women who work for Rose Marie, I cut out 3/4-inch circles with a cutter that creates a tiny raised “nose” when pressed into the dough. “We color the nose and draw on the eyes and mouth later,” she explains.

Mini Hats Take Patience

Tiny stocking hats are made from red and green dough. We use noodle cutters to make 5/8-inch strips of red, a paring knife to cut the strips into triangles for the hats. I’m all thumbs trying to pinch and twist the peak of each tiny hat to make it look jaunty!

“To get pieces of salt dough to stick together when baked, you have to wet them before pressing them together,” Rose Marie says. “Moisten the base of your hat on this wet sponge, then shape it around the top of the head.”

Finally, we add a hatband of green dough, where the first name of a family member can be printed. We get an assembly line going and soon have trays with heads by the dozen. Such tiny pieces! But it’s this time-consuming attention to detail work that makes Dough Delights creations very special!

Ann catches dough from rolling machine.

She and Sharee Young cut out Dough Delights’ popular Snowflake Family ornament.

10 a.m.» Snuggling the heads in between the points of the snowflake is a breeze in comparison. More can be arranged on top of the snowflake for bigger family groups.

“Young married people with children are our biggest customers,” says Rose Marie.

11 a.m.» We slide baking sheets of Snowflake Family ornaments into the ovens. “The ornaments bake long and low—5 hours at 200°.

“You can’t overbake salt dough. But, like any baking, humidity can make a difference in the timing. For a doneness test, I press them with my finger. They should feel firm.”

Glossy Dunk

11:10 a.m.» Dipping the baked ornaments in epoxy adds gloss and preserves them. Phew! It’s strong-smelling stuff. We wear rubber gloves to shield our hands from drips and run a fan to vent the dipping area.

We slip a thin dowel through the hangers of a half dozen ornaments at a time to dip them, then hang the dowels on a drying rack.

“After they dry overnight, we draw on faces and other details with a fine-tipped pen. Then they get another dip in epoxy. Even with this protective coating, though, salt dough ornaments should always be stored in a cool, dry place.”

11:30 a.m.» No dough is wasted. We roll and cut scraps from this morning into mitten and star ornaments. Encouraged to play a little, I twist red and white dough into a candy cane. Putting salt dough through a garlic press makes “fur” for the mitten cuff.

1 p.m.» After lunch, we drive 15 miles to their storage and shipping facility in the town of Industry. There, Rose Marie and daughter Angela Hance, a partner in the business, have an impressive display of ornaments—125 designs on pegboard walls and Christmas trees.

Dipped designs hang to dry overnight.

Their daughter Angela Hance puts Ann to work pulling ornament orders for shipping.

Personalizing Pro

In the workspace behind the showroom, I help them pull orders from shelves loaded with plastic baskets of ornaments—Snowball Families, Gingerbread Families, Woodland Snowmen, reindeer, angels, wreaths with hearts, Christmas trees with multicolored lightbulbs and more!

2 p.m.» At least half the orders request personalization. Angela is a wiz at this. With a fine-tipped permanent marker and calligraphy-inspired strokes, she quickly prints on names and the year.

“We pride ourselves in fast turn-around, shipping most orders the day we get them,” notes Rose Marie. “To do that, we have to build up stock throughout the year.”

Printing on a couple of “seconds,” I see that it takes practice to judge size and placement of long and short names. My printing really needs work!

3 p.m.» I turn to Angela, the pro, for personalizing ornaments I’ll give to our sons and their families. Also, a Snowflake Family for Louie and me, with smiley faces and names for both of us and the grandkids.

It will be a wonderful remembrance of this merry day with hardworking Rose Marie and her Dough Delights crew, who add a personal touch to Christmas trees from coast to coast.

Editor’s Note: You can connect to the Dough Delights Web site via our links page. For a mail-order brochure, write to 404 E. Hickory St., Industry IL 61440, or call 1-309/769-5263 or 1-309/254-3250.

Photos By: George Hartmann