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Making play dough is almost as fun as playing and sculpting with play dough! This simple cooked play dough recipe is a great way to encourage kids to have fun in the kitchen. The resulting dough is smooth, not grainy, and you can make it using inexpensive ingredients found in your cupboard. And this recipe cooks up fast! My lovely friend and model Sofia and I made the dough in about 15 minutes, start to finish. She had so much fun, and I did too!
Materials:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1½ tablespoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups water
Food coloring
Soup pot
Wooden spoon
Step 1: Pour the ingredients one by one into a large soup pot.
Step 2: Mix them together with the wooden spoon, over medium heat, on the stove. Stir the ingredients constantly. Definitely encourage children to mix and have fun, but stay close while they are at the stove.
Step 3: The play dough will begin to form while you stir, and as it thickens up, just keep going. As soon as the majority of the mixture begins to clump to the spoon and peel away from the sides of the pot, give it one last stir, then remove it from the heat.
Step 4: Turn the dough onto a floured work surface, and let it cool for at least 3 minutes. Make sure the dough isn't hot in the center, and then begin to work it. Knead the dough over and over, for at least 2 minutes. Add a few drops of food coloring, and knead the color in.
Step 5: Have fun making sculptures, shapes, and playing with any fun kitchen tools you have around. Store the play dough in a zip-lock bag, and you can use it for the rest of the week.
Why not be a little more adventurous? Use a few drops from essential oils to add fragrance to the play dough!
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I think those are the cutest pics of a happy young Maker I've ever seen! :) I used to make that stuff as a kid. Easy, safe and FUN!!
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I make a similar recipe, without the oil and find that I can stick it in the fridge in an airtight container it will last for about 3 months. Once it's a little slimy on the corners, it's time to throw out.
I like to make several batches of different colors, and keep rotating them or let them mix them together.
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I found if you replace the water with the same amount of boiling water you can skip the stove step altogether. It mixes up just as well and my son loves it. I make up a batch, split it into three roughly equal parts and then color each section separately.
Keep in an airtight container or zip lock bag or it goes hard.
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