Homemade Edible Fingerpaint

Baby Bear was disappointed when his store bought fingerpaints ran out, so I decided to use the opportunity to try a new fingerpaint recipe. As soon as he went down for his nap, I set to work on making this edible fingerpaint recipe I found on Momtastic. On the site, the recipe calls for salt, but the author forgets to mention how much and when to add it. So, I added 1T of salt along with the flour and sugar. When the recipe says to stir until the mixture thickens, it does not say how thick it should be. I let it get to a medium gravy texture, but I wish I would have removed it from the heat a little before that because it thickened more as it cooled. In fact, because our paints sat out for several hours before we used them, I had to add more water to the baby food jars and shake just to loosen it enough for us to use, even though they were covered.

The fingerpaints were very gel-like, which Baby Bear thought was great. He loved the texture and kept squishing it in his hands. I should have anticipated him emptying the jars onto his paper, but for some reason I didn't. If I had, I would have only made half the amount of paint. The nice thing about the paints being thick was that it was easy to draw through them to make pictures. The bad part was how clumpy it was. I'm going to see if I can resolve the clumps issue by using more water, removing it from the heat sooner, and using the paints as soon as they are cool. I don't think these fingerpaints would store well based on our experience, but I will be making them again regardless. Overall, they were a great tactile experience for Baby Bear.