Aromatic smells coming from the kitchen is the sign of a welcoming home, but if you don’t happen to be baking at the moment, you can still have fabulous smells wafting out from the kitchen, by using potpourri. Make potpourri pies for your kitchen, and you’ll not only have wonderful scents in the kitchen, but perfect decor pieces as well.
Potpourri pies are easy to create when you make your own dough to begin. The craft dough has been around for many years: 1 cup flour, 1 cup salt, enough water to moisten the dough. After stirring the dry ingredients together, slowly add water until a dough develops. The dough should be easy to handle without being sticky.
Use pie tins, small tart tins, or even ordinary bake ware to cook the dough. Spray the pan with non-stick spray then roll the dough out and cut a circle of dough to place in the bottom of the cooking pan. Bake the dough at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. Instead of baking you can also let the dough air dry, but it takes quite awhile – overnight, or longer.
While the dough is baking roll the remaining dough out and cut narrow strips which will form the top of the pie. Remove the crust from the oven and allow to cool. Fill with dry potpourri, and add liquid scents to the mix, if desired.
Arrange the strips onto the top of the pie, just as you would an ordinary pie that you make. Press the edges of the dough together, all the way around the pan. If the dough won’t stick, wet it a little, then press again.
After you’ve got the pie assembled just allow the top crust to dry by setting it on a table or counter. After it has dried overnight – at least – then you can seal the dough by brushing on a clear sealant.
If you want the project to move a little faster you can turn a bowl upside-down and cover with foil. Arrange the top crust strips on the foil. After you’ve woven the top crust, lift the foil and set on the oven rack, and bake for about 30 minutes.
When it is cooled, you can use ordinary glue to attach the top crust piece to the edges of the bottom crust. Now you can seal the dough, if desired. Set the potpourri pies around the kitchen, or in the dining room for a decor piece that smells great.
The potpourri pies are easy to make for yourself or to give as a gift. When the potpourri begins to lose its scent, simply add some liquid potpourri by sprinkling it, through the openings of the top crust, onto the underlying dry potpourri. The pies will last forever and never lose their scent. And, you can change their scent any time by simply adding a different liquid scent.
If you want, you can use frozen pie crusts for this project. Bake them according to package instructions, but put the crusts in smaller pie tins to make tarts, rather than huge potpourri pies.
If you love potpourri, you’ll absolutely love this project.
Reference:
- Purchase potpourri online
