Christmas Crafts

This Christmas, we were low key and made gifts for most everyone. One of the things I gave was jars of home made bath bombs (or in this case, bath bonbons), which fizz luxuriously when you drop them into the tub. I used this recipe. However, for citric acid, which really should have been simple to find near canning supplies in any of the FIVE places we had to go to find it... I used Sour Salt from the kosher section. Same thing. Much easier to find. Rather than using an essential oil to scent it, I used rose water, which was a bit touchy to stir in without everything bubbling up, but seemed to work fine. I wanted the smell to be a bit subtle.

I also baked some rose petals on a baking tray until they dried out (surprisingly quickly) and crushed them to add to the mixture. Who doesn't like rose petals in their bath? They added nicely to the scent as well.

I pressed them into candy molds, using a pestle to put enough pressure on them to make them firm. I had to try some, of course, and I was pretty pleased with the result. I dropped in three bonbons, and they fizzed away in short order. It was a pleasant smell--not overwhelming or chemical--and there was just enough oil in them to leave my skin feeling nice and soft, but not enough to leave a mark on the tub. Whew. These would also make a good foot soak, I think.

One other thing, if anyone's planning on making these--humidity can do really wack things to them. They need to dry for a while before being packaged, but leaving them out for too long makes them puff up. After opening a jar of bonbons I'd closed tightly and having it hiss like a bottle of soda, I decided I needed a dessicant in there. I got a little box of it from the craft store--the kind used to dry flowers--and made a little sachet for each bottle. After that, voila! No more pressure and hissing, though I was too late on a few of the bottles, and the bonbons looked more like macaroons than sleek candies.