If cooking up play dough and using somewhat pricey cream of tartar doesn’t appeal to you, here is an easy, no cook recipe that is used at a local Strong Start classroom. If your toddlers stomp on it or sneeze on it repeatedly, you can simply throw the play dough out and make some more. Sure playdough isn’t that expensive, but when you’re a little tike what you really want to do is get your hands into the squishy dough and cut it up. As your children get a little older and want to use the official Play-Doh creation devices*, that’s when you will want to purchase the real thing.
You can follow this recipe as it is written or cut the portions of ingredients in half. The dough can be kept fresh for about a week by placing it in a ziplock bag when it is not in use. As you can see in the photos, here at BC Family we had a bit of a shopping mishap when daddy came home with premade Kool Aid in individual drink packs. (He thought he was buying the crystals.) Let’s just say that it tastes atrocious. This drink tastes nothing like the Kool Aid you remember from your youth. It’s so nasty you wouldn’t even serve it to a keen youngster. As a compromise it replaced the water in the recipe and was topped up with extra boiled water.
Once the dough is made, let it sit so that it can firm up. You can place it in the freezer to encourage the process along if you are in a hurry. Once it starts to solidify, it helps to kneed in some more flour to reduce the stickiness. Just when you are thinking the whole process is a bust, it will all start to come together.
We used the play dough on cotton placemats rather than placing it directly on the table. The play dough doesn’t stick to the cotton and clean-up is a breeze. You can use small cookie cutters, wooden sticks from ice cream parlours or other devices that aren’t too sharp to encourage exploration. A junior baking kit has fun utensils such as a small rolling pin.
Enjoy!
Recipe
Mix the following ingredients together in a large bowl, in the order listed below.
2 cups of boiling water
1 package of Kool Aid
1 cup of salt
4 tbsp of oil
2 cups of flour (added in gradually)
Optional: let play dough solidify on a piece of wax paper. If you do not have any wax paper, leave the play dough in the mixing bowl.
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