Experiments in Salt Dough

I've been wanting to try this for a while since I saw Simply Being Mum first mention that she used it.  Well a few days ago she posted her Simple Salt Dough Recipe and tips for making and as the weather took a decided turn for the worse I decided it was as good a time as any to give it a go.

Now you have to remember I have very limited supplies here. I managed to pick up one cookie cutter at a local charity shop for 10p but that wasn't going to get me very far. I had intended to go to one of the big shops in Exeter but it was right over the other side of the city and the weather really was atrocious! As it happened I bumped into my landlady and asked if she might have some I could borrow so I could give it a try on the cheap so to speak! Off we toddled to the kitchen and out came a lovely selection!  A quick trip to the local supermarket for salt and food colouring, and a set of knitting needles from the charity shop to make holes and I was all set (I thought).

I came back and checked Jo's recipe - ah yes, a mixing bowl and a rolling pin! Well I didn't really want to go and bother the landlady again so I got my biggest cereal bowl out and decided I'd only make a small batch! (I went for 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of salt and water). As for a rolling pin...

A nice glass bottle that fortunately hadn't made it as far as the bottle bank!

It really is a ridiculously simple recipe and it was actually quite good fun getting my hands dirty! It did take me a couple of attempts to work out the best way to peel the shapes off the worktop but I think I did pretty well for a first attempt. I did however completely forget to put the food colouring in so these are all au naturel!!

There are more than this but they didn't fit in the picture! I don't have an oven so these are sitting on foil on a shelf above a radiator to dry out. Jo says it could take up to 5 days but I'm hoping with the radiator underneath (although it isn't on all the time) it'll be a bit less! (pm Thurs 21st)

I've just been and turned all the salt dough shapes over (am Fri 22nd)

As you can see they are drying nicely round the edges, and hopefully now the underside is exposed they will dry out all over. Patience has never been a strong point of mine!

I've now got to wait for Jo's post on ways to decorate/paint them. You can see in the first pic that I stuck buttons in a few. After a search on Pinterest I'm also watching some letterpress letters on eBay so that I could stamp words/names etc into future batches.

I'll update this post with progress!!