Salt Dough for Ornaments (Gluten-Free and 100% Fun)

Posted by chickiepea on December 12, 2011 · 2 Comments 

This recipe is not one for eating, but for decoration only.  Many people can’t even touch items with gluten due to Celiac and severe sensitivity, so we altered the standard wheat-laden recipe to be gluten-free.  It certainly won’t kill you if you taste/eat a little bit, since all the ingredients are edible, so it is kid-friendly, but it’s not recommended that someone chow down on it.  I think the heavy salt taste would deter that anyway, unless your kid is like Lil Pea, who will eat straight salt.

 

Gluten-free Salt Dough:

1 cup each: white rice flour, salt (I used the cheap stuff!,) and potato starch (corn starch would work too)

2 tsp tapioca starch

about 2 cups warm water

 

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and add water,  about 1/2 cup at a time.  I added a bit more as we played with the dough, as it tends to dry out in the air, but it’s easy to re-moisten with a few drops of water or by wetting your hands before you knead it.  After the water is all mixed in, knead the dough until it is soft and smooth.

 

Roll the dough (we didn’t flour the surfaces or anything, but you can if you like.. it wasn’t sticky at all, just crumbly if too dry.)  We rolled ours to about 1/2″ thick and then cut with cookie cutters to paint when they are dry.  *Make sure you poke a hole in them (not too close to the edge, so they don’t crumble!) for stringing to tie on the tree or as gift tags.

These air dry or you can bake them at a very low temperature, as long as you watch them carefully.  A food dehydrator would work as well.

 

Goose traced her hand to make a handprint ornament

Lil Pea shows off her salt-encrusted hands

 

The girls work together at the end to combine every last bit of dough for another ornament

This is a fun project for kids and adults who don’t get to use cookie cutters and play with dough as often as they’d like.

 

 

Advertisement

Filed under Uncategorized