Adventures in Salt Dough

Please don't feed this to your children; they make horrible faces and spit all over the floor.

Aside from that, though, it's great fun! I thought it would be nice for Mikayla to make her own Christmas ornaments for family members this year, so that she'd have her own little gifts to distribute. I started out ambitious - I got out probably eight different cookie cutters and made sure to put wax paper down to protect the table. The wax paper came back up maybe three or four minutes later (thank you, Mikayla), and we only used the star. It ended up pretty messy, so I wouldn't recommend doing it if you need your child to stay clean for some reason.

Basic Salt Dough

 

2 cups salt (I did 1c kosher salt and 1c table salt)

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra

1 cup water

This recipe yielded about 25 2-inch stars, plus a good-sized ball leftover for another project we have planned. We stored the extra dough in a tupperware in the fridge. Just cut the recipe in half if you don't want a ton of salt dough. Kosher salt gives it a grittier texture, but feel free to use just table salt if that's all you have.

Mix together the salt and flour, then add the water a little at a time. Stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms, then knead until you reach your desired texture. The humidity affects the consistency your dough will have. If it seems a little sticky, don't hesitate to add a little more flour. (It was raining here, so I used probably more like 3 cups). Flour the table before you roll your dough out and cut it, too, or else it'll stick to the cookie cutter and end up deformed. Place your shapes on a cookie sheet with some parchment paper to prevent sticking, and don't forget to make holes if you plan to hang them! The smaller end of a chopstick works well. Bake at 200° for at least two hours, longer if your shapes are on the thicker side. After they cool, you can paint them.

Mikayla had a blast playing with the sticky dough. The best part was when she said, "Look! A hat!" It's definitely a teachable experiment for your little ones - measuring, counting (especially if you use a 1/4 or 1/2 cup scoop), pouring, and mixing. If they're on the younger side, you'll probably have to cut the shapes yourself, but they'll have plenty of fun playing with the other cookie cutters and dough.

I don't recommend using Crayola Washable Paint to paint the ornaments. It crackled on some; we might've been able to prevent it by using a little more paint or a second coat. Let me know if you are more successful with Crayola or another brand of paint.

<3,

Erika