I have talked and written about Christmas but in reality I have done very little about it. I want to have Christmas decoration at the farmers market on the stall. I would like to follow the home made theme so I have been considering if I can do anything with salt dough.
We have a string of wooden letters that spell out ‘Christmas’ on a bit of decorated string so I have tried to make a ‘Christmas’ in salt dough and push a skewer through the letters to make thread holes.
I’ve searched several sites on the Internet and it seems the dough is 2 to 1 flour and salt, made into a dough with water and a splash of lemon juice.
I had the end of a packet of plain flour so I used 180 grams of flour. 90 grams of salt, a spoon of lemon and then added spoons of water bringing the dough together with my hands, adding more water until I had a pliable dough that’s not sticky but molds easily into a ball. Kneed the dough until the texture changes to being a bit more elastic (a few minutes only) and then pop in a bag or airtight box in the fridge for 20 minutes or more.
I rolled the dough to about a centimeter or half an inch thick, then used a sharp knife to cut out letters from templates and put them on a baking tray covered in foil. These then got skewered a couple of centimeters from the tops using a metal kebab skewer.
They sat in the bottom oven for about an hour before I turned them and put them back. If you have a cold kitchen cook them at a low heat about 50 degrees C or leave them in an airing cupboard overnight.
