How to make salt dough - Easy salt dough recipe | toucanBox (2024)

FAQs

What are the ingredients in salt dough? ›

Salt dough is a malleable dough made with flour, water, and salt. Since it doesn't crumble or crack and it's easy to dry in the oven or microwave, salt dough is a popular DIY material for homemade crafts and ornaments.

The salt dough recipe

Mix together salt and flour. You want a ratio of one part salt and two parts flour. For making just a few little salt dough creations with your kids, one cup salt and two cups flour should be enough. If you want to prepare more, just increase the number of cups proportionally.

Water – slightly warm to the hand water we have found works best for this recipe.

And with only three ingredients — flour, salt, and water — this simple salt dough recipe is the perfect intro to kitchen basics.

1/2 cup cornstarch. 1 cup baking soda. 3/4 cup water.

Chemically, table salt consists of two elements, sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl).

Salt provides flavor.

Generally, the correct amount of salt in bread dough is 1.8 to 2% of salt based on flour weight (that is, 1.8–2 pounds of salt per 100 pounds of flour).

According to Ruhlman, baking bread is as simple as four ingredients (flour, water, salt and yeast) and two numbers: 5 and 3. That's the ratio of flour to water that will create a basic bread dough.

Classic recipe (I)

2 cups of flour. 1 cup of salt.

The dough will last for a long time in an airtight container kept in the fridge. Mix the salt and flour together, and gradually add the water until the dough becomes elastic, then add the vegetable oil. If the mixture is too sticky, add more flour, if it's too dry, add more water.

What is the fastest way to harden salt dough? ›

Oven dry the salt dough pieces.

Instead of air drying the uncoloured salt dough pieces, you can bake them in a conventional oven at 93°C (200°F). The drying time depends on the thickness and size of the pieces. It can be as short as 30 minutes for small and flat pieces to several hours for bigger, thicker ones.

If you find that your oven has the lowest temperature of above 150C then I would advise you to air dry your salt dough creations which will take considerably longer but will prevent the puffing up. It may also puff up if you have used self-raising flour instead of plain or all-purpose flour.

Carbon dioxide is responsible for all the bubbles that make holes in bread, making it lighter and fluffier. Because gas is created as a result of yeast growth, the more the yeast grows, the more gas in the dough and the more light and airy your bread loaf will be.

Adding eggs to your dough can, indeed, help you get a crispier crust, but again, it carries with it a pretty hefty cost. Typically, 2% egg white is added to the dough to improve crispiness. This equates to one pound of egg white per 50 pounds of flour in the dough. But that added expense isn't really necessary.

You'll know the salt dough ornaments are done when they are dry, hard, and a consistent color. If they still feel soft after baking for the time indicated, bake them longer.

Method: Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl. Add food colouring TO the boiling water then into the dry ingredients. Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough.

It should be made clear to a child using play dough that this is not food and should not be eaten. It could be a choking hazard if put in the mouth, but symptoms are unlikely if it is swallowed. If a large amount is ingested, a minor upset stomach or loose stool may occur.

What was the 4 steps in making the dough? ›

There are three types of pastry dough in a classically trained chef's arsenal that should be known by heart.

Start with 1 cup flour and 1 cup salt. Add spices or other kitchen ingredients for color and texture. Slowly add up to one half cup cold water while mixing together to form a ball. It helps to knead the clay for several minutes.

Sea salt is in fact absurdly easy to make. In essence, you just need to take a bucket of seawater, and make the water go away. If you don't mind waiting until July or August, you can let the sun do most of the work for you, by using shallow pans to evaporate off the sea water.

2 cups water 2 cups flour 1 cup salt 2 tbs cooking oil 4 tsp cream of tartar Food coloring (optional) Add food coloring to water it you wish to color the dough. Mix and heat until ingredients form a ball. Knead until smooth and store in airtight container.

Sugar and salt cure (2:1 ratio sugar to salt)

It's best to use the type of butter called for in a recipe. But here's a general rule: reduce or add 1/4 teaspoon of salt per 1/2 cup (1/4 lb; 115g; 1 stick) of butter.

For each cup of all-purpose flour, you will need 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder and ¼ teaspoon of salt.

Ratios Defined

Whereas conventional recipes use specific ingredient measurements, culinary ratios are a fixed proportion of ingredients in relation to one another. Instead of measuring by cups or pounds, ingredients are defined in “parts” that are relative to each other in quantity.

How do you calculate baking ingredients? ›

Ingredient Percentage=Ingredient Weight/Total Flour x 100%

For example, if a formula calls for 60 pounds of water and 100 pounds of flour, the baker's percent would be 60% water. If there are two types of flour being used, the combination of the weight of both flours will be 100%.

When searing or sautéing, use the amount of oil or butter it takes to cover your pan's surface. When doubling a recipe, start by using 1 1/2 times the dried herbs and spices and salt. Again, you always add more, but you can't take it away.

If the percentage of salt added to a dough becomes too high, excessive dehydration will eventually kill the yeast and bacteria. Most scientists believe that at 2% of the flour weight or less, salt alone does not significantly alter either the yeast's gassing power or the bacteria's acid production.

Without salt, your dough will rise faster than it normally would, leading to less flavor development and a weaker structure.

Baking with oil produces moist and tender baked goods.

Because oil is liquid at room temperature, it produces exceptionally moist baked goods. Butter, on the other hand, is solid at room temp, and therefore baked goods made with it are (arguably) a tad more dry.

Let the dough rest at least 20 minutes. At this point you can also put your dough into a tupperware and store to use later. Get creative! Place your salt dough creations into the oven at 250F for about 2 hours or until dry and hardened.

Modge podge works great as a sealer and you can also buy craft varnish (glossy or mat) to seal dough. On its own will last up for a long time without sealing too, if you handle it properly! Sealing will add a nice look to them though, especially if you want them to be glossy.

Ingredients for the Classic Salt Dough Recipe

500 g plain flour – self raising flour will make the salt dough bubble as it dries especially in the oven. These measurements make around 24 ornaments of a medium cookie cutter size. The recipe below can be converted to cups in the recipe card below.

Let it dry naturally. Depending on the thickness it could take up to 5 days. Dry it in the oven at 200 F / 90 C. Thin items will take about an hour, other items like our Christmas decorations can take up to 3 or 4 hours.

You can paint a coat of glossy decoupage glue over the entire ornament to seal and protect it, and to give it a shiny finish. You can also spritz it with a light coat of polyurethane spray. Both methods, along with the salt acting as a natural preservative, help to extend the ornament's longevity.

Do you paint salt dough before baking? ›

Once you have created with the salt dough and baked it, you can paint it!

If making ornaments, bake for 90 minutes to 2 hours; if baking handprints, bake for 2-3 hours. Continue baking both ornaments and handprints as needed until they are until just firm to the touch, checking every 20 minutes.

Don't double the spices right away

Tip: when doubling spices in a recipe, start by multiplying by 1.5 at first. Things like salt, cayenne, pepper, etc, can get too strong if they're outright doubled. (For example, if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon salt, add 1 1/2 teaspoons instead of 2 when doubling.)

Ingredients: 1 cup flour (self-rising flour should not be used as it will cause the ornaments to bubble up while baking) 1/2 cup salt. 1/2 cup water (or more as needed)

Stages of dough mixing

Initial development: dough gets warmer, smoother and drier. Clean up: dough is at maximum stiffness and comes together as one cohesive mass. Final development: Dough is at the correct temperature and handling quality (gluten film is visible, and the dough is ready to be discharged from mixer).

There are five main types of pastry dough for creating pastries: flaky, shortcrust, puff, choux and filo. All of them are made primarily from flour, water and fat.

You'll know the salt dough ornaments are done when they are dry, hard, and a consistent color. If they still feel soft after baking for the time indicated, bake them longer.

If a recipe calls for self-raising flour it is doing so because it is relying on the raising agents in that flour to make the baked good 'rise'. If you use plain flour instead and don't add any raising agents you will most likely end up with a very flat, dense bake!

Self-rising and all-purpose white flour serve different baking purposes. Don't use self-rising flour in place of all-purpose flour or results may be disappointing. Enter the baking aisle in a local grocery store and you will likely see several different types of white flour.