Salt Dough

Ingredients:

2 Cups of Flour
1 Cups of Salt
1 Cup water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200.

In a large bowl mix salt and flour.

Gradually stir in water. Mix well until it forms a doughy consistency.
Form a ball with the dough and kneed it for at least 5 minutes. The longer you kneed the dough the smoother it gets!
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, or use it like you would clay and form ornaments (like snowmen etc, but remember the dough will take longer to dry in 3d ornaments!)

Place the ornaments on a cookie sheet and poke a hole in the top with a toothpick, so you can thread ribbon for hanging. If you make 3d ornaments, then you may want to invest in tiny cup-hooks to screw into the top before baking. Let them air dry or bake them at 200F until dry (you can up the temp to 350 but they may turn brown a bit. Not a big deal if you paint them anyway, and if not it might look rather nice. They tend to look like cookies, or bread when they turn brown a bit).

Bake the ornaments at 200 F until they are dry. The amount of time needed to bake depends on size and thickness; thin flat ornaments may only take 45-60 minutes, thicker ones can take 2-3 hours or more. Increasing the temperature to 350F will dry the ornaments faster, but may make them brown. If you paint them, this will not matter, since the paint will cover the brown. On the other hand they may look very nice and rustic, like cookies or bread if they are kept the natural colour and just lacquered.

These make great “Baby’s first Christmas” presents as well and look cute tied to a gift! You can personalise them by painting the name of the recipient on them!

Have fun making your very own ornaments for your tree!

Happy Holidays!