Homemade Playdough
Rainy day got your kids down? Looking for a quick and easy homemade craft that will get their creative gears turning? Try this homemade playdough. Just 5 basic pantry ingredients and an adult to heat the water, and the world of color, fun and fantasy are just around the corner.
Playdough
- 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 cups very hot water
- various food coloring (optional but fun)
- various scented oils or liquid flavorings (again, optional)
Directions
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1) Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar with a whisk until well blended. Break up any lumps of salt with your fingers. |
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2) Add the oil to the hot water (a good job for grownups). Mix into the flour blend until a smooth dough forms. The dough will be quite warm to begin with, but cools quickly. |
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3) If using colors and scents, divide the dough into sections and scent and color each. Wearing rubber gloves for the initial kneading will help keep your hands from becoming stained. |
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4) Once your shapes, critters, and designs are done, they can be dried at room temperature overnight, or longer, and painted with craft paints for lasting treasures. If you are not keeping shapes, etc. the playdough can be stored airtight in the fridge for one week. |
Recipe summary
- Hands-on time:
- 5 mins. to 10 mins.
- Baking time:
- Total time:
- 5 mins. to 10 mins.
- Yield:
- Recipe comments (17) »
Reviews
10/09/2009
I thought I followed it to a T, but this dough came out looking like cream of chicken soup (texture, not color). Can I add more flour to this mixture to harden it up? I can't even pick it up with my hands ...
How frustrating! Both the flour and the salt are hydroscopic (they attract and retain water). First, let's be sure you added the 1 cup salt. Then,you might try adding 2 parts flour and 1 part salt to thicken the recipe. If this does not work, call our Bakers Hotline at 800-827-6836. Irene @ KAF
08/26/2009
My son is 4 and he loves this recipe for playdough. It is a wonderful brown/mud color if you add about 2 Tablespoons of cocoa!
05/19/2009
I also have made this when my children were little (oldest is now 39). One year for Chistmas I made for myself and the grandparents little elf figures with flat faces, baked them (slowly), painted them and put a cut out photograph face of each of my children. That was thiry years ago and they are still part of our Christmas decorations (and the grandbabies love seeing the face of their Papa when he was a baby).
05/12/2009
Great recipe. Have been making a version of this (my recipe cooks it into a goopy ball and then is kneaded) for my own kids and pre-k classes and now my grandchildren for about 25 years now. Adding color to liquid is much easier and gives good color distribution as stated elsewhere. Although we don't typically scent it, at holiday time I add ginger, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon to the dough. It gives it a pretty varigated brown color (like a nice dough) and it smells great. I work in an integrated classroom and no one has tasted it yet - doesn't mean it won't happen but we monitor it pretty well. And I agree that one little taste with all that salt will probably keep it from happening again! We do not use food products for any art projects (too many of our children potentially come from homes that might not have enough to eat) but this is the one exception that we make. It is not a one time project (like macaroni art or fruit and vegetable prints). It is a reasonable price (although cream of tartar is getting more and more expensive) for a great reusuable product. It is so much better than the puchased item and is such a great calming sensory and fine motor activity.
05/09/2009
When I taught preschool in the 1970s, this was a weekly item to make for our class. We cooked it in an electric frying pan so the kids could watch at a safe distance. We changed the colors to match the seasons & themes of the week or month, (green for St Patrick's, pink & yellow for Easter, red & green for Christmas, orange for Halloween, blue for Hanukkah, dark pink for Valentine's, brown for Thanksgiving, etc). We even had Red white & blue for 4th of July. The colors are endless!! We never scented ours but the color was the best!! This is a golden oldie!!!
05/06/2009
As a great grandmother and former teacher and Girl Scout leader, I have made this many times with children. We also cooked it and it lasted very well. Gee, I may make some and play by myself.
05/06/2009
This is a great recipe for homemade playdough. We even put it in our family cookbook. Lots of teachers in our family so it is tried and true. I also agree that putting the coloring in the liquid is easier and my recipe calls for cooking until it forms a ball. I made a new batch for my kdg class each month using a new color and new set of cookie cutters for the season. But, use your judgement if you think you need a clean batch. It's cheap!
05/06/2009
This recipe has been around as long as dirt. I love it too, and it will keep little hands busy for a very long time. As far as clean-up, if you let it sit long enough it hardens and then just vaccuum up all the little pieces.
05/05/2009
Okay, I'm the old lady of this crowd. My first born is 38 and I have been making this since he was about 2. I finally have two grandsons (my daughter's kids), the oldest is 3 1/2 and I make this for him each time he comes to visit me. He loves it and so does his mom. My recipe says to "cook" it also. It lasts a lot longer than a week though. With finances tight right now for so many, this is so much cheaper and superior to store bought. I was going to make several batches this weekend because grandson #1 is coming to visit.
05/05/2009
I have always been opposed to using food stuff for decoration or art. This includes macaroni necklaces and mixed, dried bean collages and shellacked bread dough ornamentation Sorry - I just think it is a waste of food product. My kids always understood my reasons for this because they cooked and baked and grew gardens with me.
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