Homemade dough · Dries hard
Salt dough: the easy recipe and how to bake it
Salt dough with 3 ingredients (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water): the recipe, air-drying or baking in a low oven, painting, and sealing.
- DifficultyVery easy
- Time15 min + drying
- MakesAbout ten small pieces
- Recommended ageAges 3+, with an adult
Salt dough is the classic craft-time dough: three ingredients, a ratio that’s easy to remember (2 flour, 1 salt, 1 water), and creations you can keep for years once they’re dry and sealed: Christmas ornaments, fridge magnets, handprints, little figurines.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (480 ml) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (240 ml) table salt
- 1 cup (240 ml) warm water
- Food coloring (optional, in the water)
Supplies: a mixing bowl, a rolling pin, cookie cutters, a straw for poking holes, a baking sheet.
Steps
- Mix the flour and salt, then make a well in the middle.
- Pour in the warm water (with food coloring if you like) and knead. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
- Too crumbly: a little water; too sticky: a little flour, always in small amounts.
- Roll it out about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick, then cut and shape. Poke a hole with a straw in anything you want to hang.
- Let it dry: in the open air for 24 to 48 hours on a tray, or in the oven (see below).
How do you know it worked?
Air-dry or bake?
Air-drying takes one to two days for thin pieces. In the oven, set a low temperature, between 170°F and 230°F (75°C and 110°C), and allow about 2 hours on average for small pieces (longer if they’re thick). A piece is dry when it sounds hollow and no longer gives under your finger. Let it cool in the turned-off oven to avoid cracks.
Painting and sealing
Once it’s dry, paint it with acrylic craft paint or tempera paint, then protect it with a clear sealer (spray or brush-on, applied by an adult) or a decoupage glue: without protection, moisture softens the dough.
The most common slime fails
- It puffs up or browns in the oven
- The oven is too hot: lower the temperature and bake it longer.
- It cracks
- It dried too fast or the piece is too thick: dry it more gently, and make thinner pieces.
- It sticks to your fingers
- A little flour, then knead.
Variations and ideas
- A handprint or footprint keepsake: a disk about ½ inch (1 cm) thick, then a long drying time.
- To play without keeping anything, go for homemade playdough, which is softer.
How to store it
Raw: a few days in the fridge, well wrapped. Dried and sealed: for years, away from moisture, heat, and light.
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