What Are Baking Soda Crumbles?
Whether you’re making rocks, balls, bricks, cubes, mountains or blocks, baking soda crumbles are made by moistening 1 cup baking soda per 1 tablespoon water, pressing the mixture into molds and letting it air dry. The baking soda can be used again and again to make crumbles, unless you decide to dissolve it with vinegar.
Why Do People Make Baking Soda Crumbles?
Making baking soda crumbles can be useful for ASMR and sensory play. They may provide you with a calming or soothing factor when you break down the chunks or sift it through your hands. Or perhaps you’re making content for others who are into the ASMR scene and want to watch or listen.
Alternatively, you may choose to make baking soda crumbles with your child and mix them with vinegar as a fun science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activity. Or, you might form molds for bath bombs. In short, different people may find different utilities for baking soda crumbles. After all, baking soda has ample uses.
Supplies
- Large mixing bowl or container
- Water
- Measuring spoon or dropper
- Ruler, pastry cutter or other straight edge tool
- ARM & HAMMER™ Baking Soda
- Powdered food coloring (optional)
- Shot glasses, containers, or plastic or silicone molds for shaping your crumbles
Method
- Add desired amount of ARM & HAMMER™ Baking Soda to your mixing bowl or container depending on how many baking soda crumbles you want to make. We suggest roughly 1 cup baking soda per 1 tablespoon of water. If you want your crumbles to be another color instead of white, try sprinkling in some powdered food coloring and mix into your baking soda before moving to step 2.
- Slowly add water (warm or cold) using a dropper or a measuring spoon and mix. You don’t need much water – you're going for just damp enough to clump together.
- Mix until the baking soda is moist. You can use a spoon or use your hands as another form of baking soda ASMR or meditative movement. Try grabbing the baking soda and squeezing it in your hands.
- Once the baking soda is moist and will stick together in your hand, press it into your mold tightly. You can use a ruler, a pastry cutter or another straight edge tool to make the bottom smooth and flat. You can make several molds in various shapes, like cubes, “rocks” or bricks.
- Turn the mold upside down. The baking soda should slide out in a single piece, shaped like the mold. If it breaks apart, repeat step 4 and try compressing more tightly.
- Let your baking soda shapes dry for at least 2 days. They should be hard and crunchy.
- Pick up and break, snap, and crush away, on or off camera!
Note: the bigger your baking soda crumbles are, the longer they may take to dry, so make smaller-sized chunks if you want them to be ready sooner. Temperature and humidity can also affect how long it takes for your crumbles to dry.
You can repeat these steps and pulverize your crumble over and over again with the same baking soda, so long as you’re using water. Or add that vinegar and watch the dissolving magic take place!
How to Make Baking Soda Crumbles in the Microwave
If you do not want to wait for your baking soda shapes to dry on their own so you can crush them for that oddly satisfying feeling, you can use the microwave to help them harden quickly. Be aware, however, that baking soda breaks down at temperatures above 176 degrees Fahrenheit, so being in a hurry could cause your baking soda to become sodium carbonate, water and carbon dioxide.
Follow the recipe above to make your crumbles but turn your molds out onto a microwave safe plate and microwave for 90 seconds on 50% power. Repeat if needed or air dry further until they are ready.
What Else Can You Do with a Baking Soda Crumble?
You can do quite a bit with a baking soda crumble! For example, you and your child can incorporate STEM principles by adding vinegar to the baking soda and watching or timing it as it dissolves. You can also expand on this basic recipe for crunch baking soda bricks by making dino eggs or moon rocks.
Moreover, if you want something more than baking soda blocks or an ASMR crumble, you can try your hand at making baking soda bath bombs. Like with the crumble, baking soda bath bombs involve using molds so you can have some fizzy or colorful fun in the tub. In any case, you can do quite a bit with those chunks of baking soda!
ASMR and More with ARM & HAMMER™ Baking Soda
After you’ve tenderized your meats with baking soda and used it to help clean your whole home, relax and tease your senses by making a baking soda crumble. Whether you’re crushing the “rocks” you’ve made or sifting the powder in your hands, see how baking soda crumbles can help provide a tingling sensation to meet your ASMR needs for yourself or your followers!
