As a child one of my fondest memories was making dough ornaments with my mom. Over the years, I have perfected her salt dough recipe to not crack or bubble, so you can enjoy these ornaments for more than one year. And it’s still so simple!
Recipe:
3 1/2 C of flour + 1/4 C for rolling
1 1/2 C warm water
1 C salt
1/4 C cornstarch for rolling
Cookie Cutters/Cookie Stamps
Mix flour and salt, than gradually stir in water (the slower the better) You can start with a wooden spoon, but eventually you have to get your hands dirty and do some kneading. The dough should become soft and pliable. Onto the rolling. This is the most important part! Roll your dough in the flour/cornstarch mixture (1/4 C flour and 1/4 C cornstarch) and ensure it is 1/4 inch thick (seriously, pull out a ruler). Dough that is too thin may crack around the edges and dough that is too thick will definitely bubble.
Choose your favorite cookie cutters and get cutting.
Don’t forget to make holes before baking for attaching string or ribbon. Bake for one hour at 325°F.
On to the fun part—decorating! The options are endless. One of my favorite tricks is painting the entire ornament with Mod Podge first as a base.
After that, it is all up to you—paint, glitter, ribbon, gems…let your imagination go wild!
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Rosie
Sunday 3rd of December 2023
I tried this recipe hoping that the ornaments would not break as the ones I did last year. I followed all the instructions and they ended up bubbling or baked. Temperature should be adjusted to around 200°F and leave it in for 2-3 hours.
Sweetbread
Wednesday 3rd of July 2019
I was thinking the exact same thing. The title of the post was "Finally! a salt dough that doesn't crack" but then the author posts a standard regulation vanilla salt dough recipe and talks about "if it's too thin it'll crack..."
*shrug*
Mia
Thursday 7th of June 2018
Looks to me as though yours still have bubbled up and some have risen.