Make & Do

Edible Dough Idea

 

My little girl loves baking and play dough, so I came up with this idea which combines the best of both activities. I started out making three small batches of a plain scone mixture but added a few drops of food colouring to the "add liquid" stage (Dr Oetker produce a natural colourings in red and yellow).

The plain scone mixture should be non-sticky when it is finished but very easy to mould and cut-out, just like play dough.

Once my little one had finished her creations I placed them on a baking tray and baked them in the oven just like regular scones. She was over the moon when she got to eat them for her lunch!

Basic Scone Recipe

Ingredients

• 8oz self raising flour
• pinch salt
• 1.5oz baking margarine
• milk to make a soft dough
• food colouring

Method

1. Mix flour and salt in a bowl
2. Rub in the margarine until it resembles breadcrumbs
3. Add a little milk (a couple of tablespoons to start with) and a few drops of colouring
4. Mix together. If the mixture is too dry a little more milk. If the mixture is not colourful enough add a few drops more colouring. If the mixture turns wet and sticky because you have added too much milk (or colouring!) then add in a little more flour until the mixture is no longer sticky. The mixture should be nice and soft to use but not leave any residue on your hands when you handle it.

Then just let the children have fun! We used a selection of cookie cutters, the favourites turned out to be the butterflies which they children added coloured spots to and the leaves which they mixed the colours together for to create a marble effect.

One thing to note, is that the dough needs to be fairly uniformly rolled out (preferably to about 1" thick) otherwise you will have to keep looking at the cooker because the thinner scones will need cooking for less time, whilst the thicker ones will need to cooked for longer so that the centres are cooked for thoroughly.

To Cook

When it looks as though the mixture is nearly used up, you will need to preheat the oven. It needs to be hot, so around Gas mark 7 (425f or 210c). Scones usually take around 10 minutes to cook, but this will change if you have a fan assisted oven (drop the temperature down a little according to the oven manufacturers guidelines) or if the creations are unusally thin or thick (thinner - less time, thicker - lower heat slightly and cook for longer).

Grease a baking sheet (or use a silicone liner if you have one) and place the scones one the sheet with a little room in between them, as they will rise when you bake them.