Play Dough Recipes
Play-Dough-Making Tips:
- Try using baby oil in place of cooking oil in play dough recipes- it smells better, won't mold, and remains soft for a long time. (Unless your kids tend to eat the play dough... then you'd better stick w/ cooking oil!)
- Another way to make your play dough smell better is to use some vanilla or orange extract.
- To make play dough last longer, use cream of tartar and/or store it in the fridge.
- For colored playdough: add food coloring, Kool-Aid or Gelatin mix to the water. To make several colors out of one batch, divide the finished dough into balls, then drip liquid coloring in a well down the middle (you can use a straw for this) and knead it in.
- For brown colored playdough: add Crystal Light Original Iced tea or cocoa with the water.
- For sparkly play dough, add in glitter during the hand-mixing/kneading.
- Store all play-dough in an air-tight container or Ziploc bag.
- *All recipes on this page are non-edible! (You can google for an edible play-dough recipe, but I'd rather use cookie dough if we're going to eat it!)
Best
Play Dough
Ingredients:
1 cup
flour
¼
cup salt
1
teaspoon cream of tartar
1
cup water
1
tablespoon oil food coloring (cake decorator’s
paste or liquid makes great colors)
1
tablespoon imitation vanilla extract
Directions:
Combine the flour,
salt and cream of tartar in saucepan. Add the water and food
coloring. Whisk until smooth. Cook over medium heat until
playdough is nearly set. Add the vanilla extract. Stir until
blended, then remove and knead when cool.
You can triple or quadruple this recipe & cook it in a
large pot with good results.
Long
Lasting Play Dough
Ingredients:
1
cup flour
1/2
cup salt
2
teaspoons of cream of tartar
Add:1
Tablespoon oil
1
cup water with food coloring in it
Directions:
Combine
ingredients and put mixture into a 2 quart pan, cook over
medium to medium-high heat. At first it will seem like you
have too much water but don't fret, it all cooks down to a
big chunk ofplaydough in about
3 minutes. Stir until it sticks together and then put on a
cutting board to cool a little. Once you can touch it, knead
it until it's completely smooth. This recipe doubles well,
and you can cut the dough w/ scissors without it sticking to
the blades. The original recipe says it lasts 3-4 months (and
it may last longer when using baby oil instead of cooking
oil).
Gelatin
Play Dough
Ingredients:
1
0.3 ounce package of sugar free strawberry, orange, or any
other fruit gelatin
2 cups
flour
1 cup salt
4 Tablespoons
cream of tarter
2 cups boiling
water
2 Tablespoons
cooking oil
Directions:
Mix
dry ingredients in pan, add the boiling water and cooking
oil, stir over medium heat until
it forms a ball let cool. This play-dough smells great! You
can cut the picture from the gelatin box to use for labeling
your container.
Kool-aid
Play Dough
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
½ cup salt
1 to 2 to 3 tsp cream of tartar
1 package Kool-Aid mix (6 g pkg)
1 cup water
1 Tbsp cooking oil
Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium saucepan. Mix
wet ingredients separately. Slowly add the wet to the dry and
stir constantly over medium heat. It'll be gloppy at first,
but that's ok. When the mixture thickens to dough and starts
holding together in a shaggy ball, let cool a few minutes and
then knead until smooth (you can do this on a slightly
greased counter top, if it needs help not sticking).
Gingerbread
Play Dough
Ingredients:
1
cup flour
1/2 cup
salt
2 tsp. cream of
tartar
1 cup water
1 tsp. veg.
oil
lots of cinnamon,
allspice, ginger, nutmeg, whatever!
Directions:
Mix the dry
ingredients. Play with the spices till you get the
scent you want and the color. Mix water and oil
together first and THEN add them to the dry ingredients and
stir. In a pot, cook the mixture for two to three
minutes, stirring frequently. The dough will start to
pull away from the sides of the pan and clump together.
Take the dough out of the pan and knead the dough until it
becomes soft and smooth. Allow to cool and store in an
air tight container.
Microwave
Play Dough #1
Ingredients:
2
cups flour
1
cups salt
2
cups water
2
tablespoons baby oil ( works better than regular
oil)
2
tablespoons cream of tarterliquid food
coloring
Directions:
Combine dry
ingredients. Add water and oil. Stir well. Microwave on high
4 to 5 minutes. Stir again. Microwave another minute. Stir.
Continue to microwave one minute, then stir, until dough is
the consistency of mashed potatoes. Cool it enough to touch.
Knead in food coloring until dough is desired color.
Microwave
Play Dough #2
Ingredients:
6
tablespoons of cream of tartar,
3
cups plain flour,
4
tablespoons of cooking
oil,
1/2
cup of salt,
3
cups of water,
food
coloring/ powder paint/ or powder
Kool-Aid.
Directions:
Combine
all ingredients in microwave proof dish and beat until
smooth. Cover with cling wrap
and microwave for 7 minutes on high, stirring halfway
through cooking.
If the mixture is still gooey, microwave for another
minute. Cool and
store in an airtight container in fridge. (Since all
microwaves cook
different, be sure to watch the play dough while
cooking.)
Gluten-Free
Play Dough #1
Ingredients:
- ½ cup rice flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup salt
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- food coloring
Directions:
Combine all ingredients except food coloring in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture thickens and forms a ball. Allow the dough to cool and then add in your food coloring. This dough seems sticky at first, but comes out nicely if you just keep kneading it.
Gluten-Free
Play Dough #2
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups rice flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 cup water
- 1 Tbsp oil
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- food coloring or sparkles (optional)
Directions:
Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a large pot. Add water and oil. Cook over medium heat until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly. Add vanilla extract (for smell, not taste). Mix thoroughly. Put play dough on a clean surface. When cool enough to handle, knead lightly.
If you decided to make
any of these recipes yourself, please send me a photo of
your kiddos enjoying them, along with your name and what
state you're from! I've recently decided to start
featuring my readers' photos.
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