Cinnamon and Spice Stove Top Potpourri Jars
I don’t know about you, but our farmhouse always feels extra cozy when it smells good. Whether it’s a homemade coffee candle mug filling the kitchen with aromas of fresh ground coffee beans or a lavender sachet tucked into a drawer each adds a special layer of cozy. And a stove top potpourri happens to be one of the most powerful forms of cozy man (or woman in this case…) can create.
In all honesty, if you haven’t made a stove top potpourri recipe – you are missing out!
All it takes is a few natural items, water, and a pot to make a simmering potpourri. And the cooler months of the year are without a doubt the best time to spend over the stove simmering homemade potpourri.
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What’s in a stove top potpourri?
In light of how to make potpourri, the beautiful thing is you can completely customize it to the season or just what you have on hand. However, for stove top potpourri jars you’ll need the dried version of everything. Putting fresh herbs or fruit slices into a potpourri jar, for example, would most certainly mold.
For that matter, many choose whole spices and dried fruit for ingredients in stove top potpourri jars. Think whole cloves, vanilla pods, whole nutmeg, and dried apples. These will keep for years to come and the aroma of dried ingredients is just as wonderful in a simmering potpourri as their fresh counterpart.
Related To: DIY Pumpkin Spice Candle Mugs
Cinnamon happens to one of those aromas that is always enjoyed in a dried version. Mulled cider, cinnamon rolls, snickerdoodles, cinnamon stick garlands, and let’s not forget cinnamon dough ornaments are all ways I grew up using cinnamon in our farmhouse. I can imagine you may have too. Stove top potpourri jars are a splendid way to enjoy the smell of cinnamon and a practical method for using up cinnamon dough scraps.
Don’t throw away the small edges around the cinnamon dough ornaments you cut out – make cinnamon dough stars for stove top potpourri instead!
In case you need it here’s an easy cinnamon dough recipe, passed down from my mother, you can bake alongside apple slices in an afternoon for stove top potpourri jars.
Cinnamon Dough Recipe:
- 1 cup ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup white school glue
- Combine 1 cup cinnamon and half a cup of applesauce in a medium mixing bowl. Stir well until combined. Then, pour a half a cup of standard while school glue into the mixture. Stir until fully combined.
- From here knead the dough with your hands as you would a bread dough to incorporate the ingredients well. (Keep in mind this will be a fairly stiff dough.)
- Wrap the cinnamon dough in plastic or beeswax wrap, and let it sit for one hour at room temperature while the glue cures.
- After, preheat the oven to 200°F degrees. Line one baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Cut the cinnamon dough in half and work with one half at a time for best results. Roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thick. (If cracks appear, rub in a pinch of water to smooth it out. Knead the dough a few more times by hand with dashes of water if needed.)
- Use cookie cutters to cut out as many cinnamon dough ornaments as you like, then use a small star cookie cutter in the mall areas for your stove top potpourri. Repeat kneading, rolling and cutting until all the cinnamon dough is used up.
- Place each cinnamon dough ornament and star on the prepared baking sheet. (No need to leave lots of space between each, this dough will not rise and expand like cookies.)
- Bake cinnamon dough for 2 hours until hard to the touch. Carefully, flip each ornament halfway through cooking to prevent curling.
- Cool each on the baking sheet until you can handle them easily.
How to Dry Apples
While your cinnamon dough is curing, set to work on drying apples. They are dried at the same temperature as the cinnamon dough is baked so you can prepare these simultaneously for stove top potpourri.
- Wash and dry 3 to 4 apples.
- Slice each apple into approximately ¼ an inch thick rings. Pick out seeds from the apple slices and discard them.
- Line one to two baking sheets with parchment paper to avoid the apple slices from sticking to the baking sheet. Then arrange each slice with just enough space so they are not touching.
- Dry apple slices in the oven for 2 hours at 200°F degrees.
- After drying apples, simply lift the parchment paper from each baking sheet onto a cooling rack and cool at room temperature.
How to Make Potpourri for Cinnamon and Spice Stove Top Potpourri Jars
Now that you’ve got your cinnamon dough stars and dried apple slices done, it’s time for the quick work of making stove top potpourri jars. You can use any jar you like; mason jars, jelly jars, or milk bottle jars like I did. As long as each jar is clean and airtight it will work well for stove top potpourri jars.
Stove Top Potpourri Ingredients
- 1 dozen dried apple slices
- 1 dozen cinnamon dough stars
- 6 whole nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon whole cloves
- 6 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tablespoons dried juniper berries6 milk bottle jars
How to Make Potpourri Stove Top Jars
- pen each jar and gather your ingredients.
- Fill each jar with 1 cinnamon stick, 1 whole nutmeg, 2 dried apple slices, a pinch of dried juniper berries, 2 cinnamon dough stars, and a pinch of whole cloves.
- Close each lid and add a gift tag for gifting or store in your pantry for later use.
How to Simmer Potpourri
- Fill a medium stock pot with 3 to 4 inches of water. Bring to a boil, boiling 2 to 3 minutes before reducing to a simmer.
- Carefully pour the contents of the stove potpourri jar into the simmering water.
- Add an additional cup of water every half hour or as needed to keep the potpourri underwater. (Do keep an eye on it so that you don’t run out of the water and burn your stockpot… Guilty)
How long does stove top potpourri last?
Just like spices, you can store stove potpourri jars for a few years. As for simmering potpourri, once you add water and start it on the stove it will last up to 4 days. You can continually simmer it as long as you keep the water level at least 1 inch higher than the potpourri.
Can you reuse stove top potpourri?
Yes, you can reuse stove potpourri. After simmering, allow it to cool to room temperature. Then strain it and pour it back into the potpourri jar or keep the water and store it in a larger container. Either way, place the container in the fridge overnight. Then pour it back into a stockpot and enjoy the simmering potpourri again. You can keep this up for about 4 days before tossing or composting it.
Related To: How to Make Wax Candle Melts
I love the change the seasons bring our farmhouse and all the aromas that come along with each. I’ve found stove potpourri jars to be a creative way to welcome each season as it comes. This one will have you feeling all the cozy feels.
Have you made this stove top potpourri recipe? We’d love to hear about it – tag #farmhousechicliving on Instagram to share yours and don’t forget to pin these instructions on how to dry apples, make a stove top potpourri jar and our family cinnamon dough recipe.
