A Dough Review

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We tried our hands with a new dough recipe.  The directions called for one part conditioner to two parts cornstarch.  For variety, we added liquid water color paint to the conditioner first.  It was a bit difficult to get the mixture to the right consistancy at first.  We added more liquid, then more cornstarch, etc.  Eventually, we had a pliable ball that smelled lovely and was soft on our skin.

Taking the experiment a step farther, we switched over to lotion as the wet ingredient instead of conditioner just to see what would happen.  Getting the ratios correct was an even larger challenge.  It seemed that the lotion would never absorb  enough corn starch to become stretchy.  After much tweaking, a non-sticky dough was formed.

The children were excited to begin testing out the dough with our tools.  They rolled, cut, stamped and squished the new dough while discussing it’s unusual properties.  After about ten minutes of play, we discovered that this new dough was a tad crumbly.  By the time everyone had had a turn, small bits of cornstarch had migrated all around the room.

At clean up, our ever mindful students attempted to vacuum the bits with the hand-vac.  Much of the loose pieces came up, but the carpet was certainly a lost cause.  We were surprised how difficult it was to sweep the dried cornstarch from the fibers.

Though we loved the new texture, we were apologizing heartily to the nightly clean-up crew.  It looks as though our experiment is going to go the way of “Moon Dough.”  We’ll just wait for Spring and revisit it as an outside material.

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