A Bag of Flour

The Candy Man sung by Sammy Davis Jr..one of my favourite songs as a child...!

What do you do with a bag of flour? Most people would use it for baking or mixed into a thick batter to dip seafood and meats for deep frying. That's provided its still all good, before the expiry date. But what if its expired? Most I know would trashed it.

But I would put it to good use..outside food. Since I can't make it edible, at least I can use it for something else.

A Salt Dough. Just flour, lots of salt and water. Mix it all up to form a dough. Leave it aside to settle and then mould it, bend it and shape it. Either you use it to make 'clay' figurines or like play dough for kids, you don't have worry about poisoning should the kids swallow it. Because they won't. Its too salty. Or worry if the ants will come either. Salt is a natural preservative, and this salt dough keeps for a lifetime or until someone breaks it.

This is what I use my expired flour for..I put into a mould which I recently got from Guangzhou. Its a silicone mould, intended for ice sculpture and chocolate moulding. But I bought it for making 3D Fondant figurines instead. Since I had some leftover flour which is near to expiry date, I decided to use it for this purpose.


A pekingese dog which was a favourite with the Chinese Emperor

The Lion Dog which is often seen outside a rich man's house..guarding the gates. This figurine of the lion dog is sitting on a pile of Gold coins.



The mythical Chinese Dragon guarding its Crystal ball...



The dough once taken the form of the mould, was removed and baked in preheated oven at 200C for 30 minutes. So that its dried up and harden. Unfortunately, I only had food colouring at home, no poster paints. So I can't paint these.


Here's the recipe of the salt dough

Ingredients
1 cup of flour(expired, any type of wheat flour )
1 cup of salt(fine salt will do)
60ml to 70ml of tap water

Method:
1. Put flour in a large mixing bowl
2. Add salt to stir and mix
3. Add water and knead into a dough.
4. The dough may feel grainy due to the salt. Now its ready for use.
5. Shape into patterns or roll out on the table like you would with cookie dough.
6. use various cookie cutters to cut.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 200C for 20 mins.

* even if it gets burnt, no worries. No one is going to eat it anyway! Decorate it with oil paints or poster paints. When its dry, paint nail varnish on it to make it shine.

You can use salt dough to make any figurines or even ornaments like bracelets, brooches or any art and craft work you need to make with your kids..

Here's the ice sculpture I did recently..