[Nfb-krafters-korner] bread dough decorations

[AUDREY WELLNER]

Joyce, 
   Thanks for the acknowledgment of our little fun holiday bread dough session.  Not only did we make the appropriate wheat color gingerbread man ornament with cinnamon fragrance, but we had enough left over to do a candy cane.  Now, whoever heard of a wheat color candy cane?  But I heard you can paint and shellac the ornaments to preserve them after they air dry. 
   This is what I've learned so far.  When using stale hard bread as opposed to day old soft bread it is to your advantage to use a kitchen grater or food processor to make fine bread crumbs (watch your knuckles) otherwise you have lumps in your bread dough.  Oh well a lumpy gingerbread man-just more to love.  
    The recipe I did was 3 or 4 stale pieces of wheat bread to about 1 tablespoon of Elmer's white glue (other white school glues can be substituted). A half teaspoon of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc) can be added to the mixture for fragrance.  Put crumbs in large paper cup, add glue and stir with Popsicle stick until chunky, dry moist (crumbly).  Turn out on to a piece of saran wrap (folded over the ingredients-to make a pouch) or place in a zip lock bag (slightly open-so air escapes) and knead for about 10 minutes.  Check after kneading a minute or two to make sure mixture is beginning to stick together.  If still crumbly, add a few drops of water (do not soak with water) then knead some more (if you add too much water-add more bread to compensate).  By this time the dough should have formed together in a ball, about the size of a golf ball (when using 3-4 slices of bread).  Now you can take the dough out of the bag and knead it a
 little more with your bare hands, because at this stage it shouldn't stick to your hands. Put ball of dough on saran wrap on hard surface (table) and flatten ball with your hand. Now fold a piece of saran over flatten ball and either by using your hand or your kitchen rolling pin, roll out dough as you would a pie crust. When you have it evenly rolled, about one eighth to one quarter of an inch thick unfold the top sheet of saran and take any holiday cookie cutter and press down into dough to make your shape.  Take excess dough from edge of cutter, roll up into another ball and process by pressing between two sheets of saran for another shape. 
   These do not have to be flat shapes--the excess can be used to build 3 dimensional figures, like dogs, teddy bears, kittens, etc.  Don't forgot to put a hole with a plastic straw or wooden skewer in your ornament to put a ribbon through for hanging.  
    When these dry and I get to painting - I'll let you know if I have any problems. 
    Where is Tom Cramer?  Haven't heard from you lately.  This is a project you can get your hands into and make a nice gift for someone for the holidays.  Give it a try. 
    Audrey Wellner 
 PS  See the reference for a recipe website below. 
 
 
 
 
Hi everyone,
   After doing some searching tonight I found a good web site that contains all types of clay dough recipes in one place.  Thought you'd all like to know so you can have fun making things out of different types of dough for the holidays. Including coffee and cinnamon applesauce dough.
Here's the site:    http://canteach.ca/elementary/artrecipes4.html
  It even has my stale bread recipe. I have some leftover wheat bread I think I'll try making gingerbread men using a cookie cutter to cut them out.  Happy crafting for the Holidays!  The old recipes are fun!  Brings back many fond memories of years gone bye.


--- On Wed, 12/3/08, Blindhands at aol.com <Blindhands at aol.com> wrote:

From: Blindhands at aol.com <Blindhands at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] bread dough decorations
To: nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 6:46 PM

I have to tell all of you, Audrey took some stale wheat bread and did the  
glue mixing and brought it to our knitting group meeting this afternoon and I  
had fun making a Gingerbread man ornament.  We did try rolling small balls  for

buttons, but they did not want to stay in place without additional  glue.
 
Joyce 
**************Make your life easier with all your friends, email, and 
favorite sites in one place.  Try it now. 
(http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000010)
_______________________________________________
Nfb-krafters-korner mailing list
Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Nfb-krafters-korner:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-krafters-korner_nfbnet.org/rencraft%40snet.net