The great dough debate

Limping my way through the silly season this year! After my looooonnng stint on work placement for my course, I have gone into hibernation mode. For the first time in a long time, I find myself laying on the lounge- doing nothing! Miraculous as I can usually NEVER sit still! My family always jokes that I never remember the plot to any movie because while I'm watching the movie, I'm knitting, painting, beading, on facebook, reading a book and cooking cupcakes at the same time. I'm taking this relaxation time to reflect on the year and just let my poor fried brain and body rest up.
That being said, I have been road testing making ornaments to decorate and give as gift tags. According to Pinterest there is two main doughs to use- salt dough and cornflour dough. I tried both and I think I found my champion....The Cornflour Dough!
 Here's a snap of both....

Cornflour dough VS Salt Dough

Here's the recipes;

CORNFLOUR DOUGH

1/2 cup cornflour

1 cup baking soda

 3/4 cup water

Add the ingredients to a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until it thickens to consistency best described as sloppy mashed potatoes (hehe).  Allow to cool on the bench (if you fridge it it gets sloppy) . Knead until smooth adding more conflour if sticky. Roll out and make into shapes then bake 80 degrees for about 1 hour, flipping over halfway through baking. Use baking paper to avoid sticking!

The Pro's and Cons

This is trickier than it sounds. I found it really hard to get a good consistency and was tricky to make into shapes. I used plastic cookie cutters though so maybe give the metal ones a go. And roll out on baking paper so you don't have to transfer!

Another con is that if you roll out too thin or the dough is too dry you may get cracking. It also has a bit of a funky smell and I wouldn't give it to young babies to play with.

The pro's... it looks gorgeous! Pretty and white and smooth surface kinda like ceramic. You can use stamps to print shapes or patterns on and it holds it shape. Looks great painted and varnished. Tip. use PVA glue to seal. it works just as well and its cheap as chips!

SALT DOUGH

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup fine table salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2/3 cup chilled water

Add all ingredients and knead. Much like playdough. Just roll and go!

The Pro's and Cons

This is easy peasy! Just like making a stiffer playdough. It is super easy to work with and is good for hand and foot prints.

The cons.... it has a yellowy appearance and never dries completely hard.  After I painted and varnished with PVA glue, it went a little softer like it absorbed it. I'm not sure how long this dough would last where the cornflour dough would last for many years.

Also when I tried to use my stamps, it dried puffy so the image was blurry.

So in conclusion, while the cornflour dough took some experimentation and a few batches to perfect, I really liked the end result!

Give it a go, I would love to see your creations...

And Merry Christmas