Home improvements: Salt dough decorations

How about baking something to decorate your home with? All you need is flour, salt and water. Mix one part salt with two parts flour in a bowl, then add one part cold water. Kneed the mix well, adding a little flour if it’s too sticky or water if it’s too dry. It will create a dough – similar to Play-Doh – that can be moulded to create a range of home decorations.

To make coloured salt dough, add a spoon of any natural spice to the mix, such as curry (for a yellow colour), or coffee (for brown).

Once you have a ball of dough, call in the children and let the fun begin. Make small balls or “snakes” for shapes. Use cookie cutters, toothpicks or straws for patterns and make your own wreath, candleholder, collectable or hanging ornament. Place your creations on an aluminium sheet on the grill in the middle of your oven at 100°C and bake until the dough is dry on both sides. (Baking time depends on the volume, so it may take a few hours.) Once out the oven and cool, they can be painted and/or varnished.

If protected from humidity, once baked, salt dough has a lifespan of many years, and won’t go bad or change shape.

* Hana’a Bou Nasr Ltayf