How To Make Salt Dough
Ever wondered how to make salt dough? It’s actually really easy to make and such fun to use to create crafts with the kids. We’ve made salt dough with our one-year-old and although it’s a little challenging ensuring that he doesn’t eat it, it does work quite well as an activity. He was really interested in the dough and how it felt, the way it squidged and also the shapes he could make using it.
Salt dough is really easy to make and can be used for a variety of crafts. You can mould it into shapes, you can use cutters to make different shaped keepsakes or you can even use it for hand and footprints to remember how small your little one’s hands and feet were.
How Do You Make Salt Dough?
When you are looking at making salt dough, you simply need three ingredients. Plain flour, salt and warm water.
The ratios are as follows –
4 measures of plain flour
1 measure of salt
1.5 measure of warm water
If you are using cups to measure out your ingredients. It will be –
4 cups of plain flour
1 cup of salt
1.5 cups of warm water
If you are measuring using grams and millilitres, the measurements are as follows –
512g of plain flour
128g of salt
235ml of warm water
You add the plain flour to a large mixing bowl, stir in the salt and then add the water bit by bit. You can start off mixing with a spoon or a knife, but it will soon become quite tricky to do, so you can just bring the dough together with your hands. Be prepared when making the mixture with your hands – it’s very sticky at first!
Once you’ve got your mixture together, you’ll need to make it into a smooth dough and knead it for about 10 mins. I find it’s best to let the dough rest for around 15 minutes before rolling it out or shaping it.
How To Make Salt Dough Ornaments
To make salt dough ornaments, you’ll need to roll your prepared dough out using a rolling pin. I find it’s best to do it between two sheets of greaseproof paper. It gives you a nice even roll and stops the dough sticking to the rolling pin.
You’ll need to think about how thick you want to roll your dough when making salt dough ornaments. The thicker the dough, the more likely they are to puff up in the oven. The thinner, the more fragile your ornaments will be.
I find that a thickness similar to a one-pound coin is ideal.
Once you’ve rolled your salt dough, you can then shape using cutters or even press shapes into it.
If you are pressing baby hands and feet, it’s best to do the hands and feet first and then use the cutters to cut around the print. That way you don’t have to be too accurate when you are doing the hand and footprints.
If you are planning on hanging your salt dough ornaments, you’ll want to cut a small hole so you can add string or ribbon. I find cutting a hole is easiest with a piece of penne or tube pasta. It makes a nice neat hole which is the perfect size for a hanging ribbon.
How Long To Bake Salt Dough
If you are wondering how you cook salt dough, my simple answer is don’t. I prefer to let my dough dry naturally. But it does take a long time, especially if you don’t have somewhere warm like an airing cupboard to put them into.
If you are looking for a quicker result, you can bake salt dough for around 2 hours in an oven pre-heated to 120 degrees. If you’ve made thicker dough, you do risk them becoming a bit puffy. If you have time, I would leave them on a wire rack and just leave them to dry out naturally for a few days.
Once the dough is completely dried out, you can decorate them however you please or if you prefer, you can leave them natural and plain. If you are painting with younger children, it might be best to use washable paint, for older children, you can use acrylic craft paints as it will give a brighter, longer-lasting finish.
I hope you found this useful for assisting your salt dough crafts. I’d love to hear what crafts you have made with your salt dough.
Read more posts in the Entertainment Category
See where I’ve linked this post