Soft Pretzel People

This was a fun one! And so easy too :)

I found this pretzel recipe here

1.5 Cups water

2 Cups all purpose flour

1 Pkg active dry yeast

1.5 tsp of sugar

3/4 tsp of salt

2 - 2.5 Cups of flour

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp water

coarse salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Heat 1.5 cups of water to 120 degrees (I used a meat thermomiter for this). In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt and warm water. Mix for 3 minutes. Add 2 cups of water and knead for 3 minutes, if dough is sticky, keep adding more flour from the half cup you have left to form a soft dough.

Tear off chunks and shape into whatever you can think up. We made a Sponge Bob, a boy, a girl, a flower, a snowman and a bunch of other abstract shapes. Put the pieces on foil covered sheets. Beat egg yolk and 1 tbsp water until well blended and brush over the dough, then sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 20 minutes. These will only stay fresh for about 2 days.

Come back tomorrow! We're making a giant rain stick from an empty wrapping paper tube.

Play Dough Prints

We are a little short on time today, so we decided to do Play Dough Prints. Both kids loved it. Austin made lizard fossils and christmas trees, and Hannah had fun squishing toys into the dough. This took about a minute for prep to gather a plate and toys that I didn't mind getting covered in play dough. Both played for about a half hour.

What you need:

Play dough

A squishing surface (I used paper plates from Halloween :)

Toys or kitchen items for making textures and cutouts

Please come back tomorrow! We're going to be making soft pretzel dough people.

Homemade Play Dough

Today's project was homemade play dough, and it went smoother than I had anticipated. My 5 year old helped me mix everything except the food coloring (I would do this yourself, it can get messy if you're not careful. My hands have blue and green stains on them right now). Austin had a blast shaping the dough into monsters, and my one year old, Hannah had a great time trying to feed it to the dog :)

Here's what you need (I found the recipe Here)

1 cup table salt
1.5 cups flour
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
food coloring

Put everything but the food coloring into a large mixing bowl and combine. Knead the dough until it forms a solid squishy mass, similar to store bought playdoe. If it's too sticky add more flour, if it's too dry, add some water until you reach a good consitency. Seperate into smaller balls, push an indent in the center and add food coloring - I used about 5 drops per ball of dough. Keep folding the dough on top of itself to try and contain the dye - I did this on top of a kitchen towel just incase some of the dye fell on the counter, which it did.

The dough should last for a few weeks in an air-tight container - I used ziploc bags, and even longer if stored in the fridge as well.

The project took about 15 to make, and my son would have played for hours if his little sister didn't need to go down for a nap ;)

Come back tomorrow! We're going to be exploring textures with the play dough we made.

Painting the Snow

This is my first post ever, so please bear with me :)

Since we have piles of snow outside, I thought it would be fun to paint it. The prep time for this took about 5 minutes, and the bags themselves lasted for about 15 minutes. This is probably better for older children (5+), but the younger ones had a blast just watching. This is a small area of our snow picture.

What you need:
-Ziploc baggies or spray bottles (we did baggies, next time I'm using a spray bottle - it was pretty messy)
-Food coloring
-Water
-Needle or pin if using the baggies

Just take the bag (or bottle) and put as much food coloring as desired (I did about 25 drops per bag), and fill the bag halfway. Bring it outside and put one to three pin pricks near the bottom corner of each bag and then let the kids have fun.

Come back tomorrow! We're making play dough (the edible version so my 1 year old can play too)