How to make Play Dough

 

 

Making your own play dough is ridiculously easy and super cheap. Try it and you’ll never want to buy the icky-smelling shop bought stuff again! I made 1.2kg of play dough this afternoon (that’s enough to keep my 3 going for quite a while!) and the ‘ingredients’ cost me under a quid (as it wasn’t meant to be eaten I used the cheapest flour and salt I could find!) And it’s quick too - It would have taken less than half an hour to produce this glorious rainbow of non-toxic dough, had I not been slowed down by my little ‘helper’. But as the whole point was to fill a house-bound afternoon with a potty-training toddler, I strung out the process to fill a couple of hours! I wanted the playdough to be nice and bright, so I liberally used whatever food colour pastes I had in the cupboard. And we added glitter to some of our colours, just for some extra sparkle! There’s no need to colour it though if you don’t want to. I had read about making scented playdough…..which seemed like a great idea, but before I got as far as adding peppermint extract and lavender oil, my little assistant had already started eating the pink dough…… and I figured she probably didn’t need any more confusing messages about whether today’s ‘cooking’ was meant to be consumed or not. Although this play dough is technically edible, I wouldn’t recommend it (yuk!)

Takes: About 20 minutes for an unencumbered adult. Or as long as you want to make it last as a kiddie activity….. Makes: About 600grams of dough (I made a double batch) Storage: In an airtight situation (ziplock bag/plastic box etc) this should keep for a good few months. The oil and the Cream of Tartar help it stay squishy! Ingredients: The ingredients don’t need to be measured particularly accurately. Just use a medium sized cup or beaker if you don’t have an official ‘cup’ measure. 1 cup fine salt 2 cups plain white flour 1 tablespoon Cream of Tartar 2 tablespoons sunflower oil 2 cups water optional: food colouring, glitter and scented/flavoured oils Method:

1. In a large saucepan mix together the salt, flour and Cream of Tartar.
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3. Add the water and oil, and mix to combine the ingredients.
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5. Put the saucepan over a low heat, and mix vigorously as it warms up. It will look like lumpy porridge for quite a while, but don’t panic!
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7. As soon as it starts coming away from the sides and forming into one big ball, cook it for just a few more seconds to ensure that it isn’t sticky, and then take it off the heat. (Note: The whole cooking process should take no more than 5 minutes, even with a double batch like I made!)
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9. Tip the dough out of the pan, and as soon as it is cool enough to handle you can start the creative part!
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11. We divided the dough into 6 balls, and used our hands to knead a different food colour paste into each one. (Note: A good tip is to rub some cooking oil onto your hands before you add the paste, as this creates a ‘barrier’ to stop it dyeing your skin)
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13. Keep adding colour until the play dough is as vibrant as you want it, and knead until the colour is no longer streaky. (Add a few drops of scented oil at this stage if you’re using it)
14. If you want to make sparkly play dough, just sprinkle glitter generously onto it, and knead it in (you need quite a lot of glitter to get a good effect).
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16. When the play dough is ready, wrap it tightly in clingfilm, or put it into ziplock bags or airtight boxes. (Note: do not store this play dough in metal tins, or keep metal cutters with it, as the salt corrodes the metal. I learnt this the hard way!)
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