Came across this recipe for
homemade play-doh a month or so ago. We made it and have been playing with it almost daily. I didn't want to share the site or recipe until I knew whether it was really good. Well I've decided to share it because it's the best recipe I've ever used...I've only used 3 different recipes I think but this is by far the best one of the 3!!! This play-doh sits out anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour most days while it's being played with. Well this morning I discovered that 2 of the colors had been left open all night. I thought for sure they would be hard and unusable but when I went to check I found that they were both still soft!! That's when I decided it was definitely worth sharing!! This would be a good recipe to use at home or in bible class to do "play-doh" stories! It makes quite a bit and is cheaper than buying play-doh.... and it last longer I think! It does require some cooking but it didn't take long at all to make. I'm sure there is a recipe out there that doesn't require cooking that would be really good too. I think this site actually refers to one! So here it is (straight from the site)
We've been using ours for over a month and haven't had to do any of the thing mentioned in step four!
step 1 IngredientsBasic ingredient ratios:
2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (optional for improved elasticity)
food coloring (liquid, powder, or unsweetened drink mix)
step 2 Mix and heatMix all of the ingredients together, and stir over low heat. The dough will begin to thicken until it resembles mashed potatoes.
When the dough pulls away from the sides and clumps in the center, as shown below, remove the pan from heat and allow the dough to cool enough to handle.
IMPORTANT NOTE: if your playdough is still sticky, you simply need to cook it longer!
Keep stirring and cooking until the dough is dry and feels like playdough.
I've gotten many comments asking about sticky dough, so please just keep cooking a bit longer and it will work!
step 3Knead & colorTurn the dough out onto a clean counter or silicone mat, and knead vigorously until it becomes silky-smooth. Divide the dough into balls for coloring.
Make a divot in the center of the ball, and drop some food coloring1 in. Fold the dough over, working the food color through the body of the playdough, trying to keep the raw dye away from your hands and the counter. You could use gloves or plastic wrap at this stage to keep your hands clean- only the concentrated dye will color your skin, so as soon as it's worked in bare hands are fine.
Work the dye through, adding more as necessary to achieve your chosen color.
1 If you use unsweetened drink mix for color, test on a small ball first- it won't go as far as the "real" food coloring.
step 4Play and storePlay with your playdough- I really don't need to help you there. It's entirely edible, if a bit salty, so it's kid-safe.
When you're done, store your playdough in an air-tight container.
- If it begins to dry out, you can knead a bit of water in again to soften the dough back to useability. Once it's dried past a certain point, however, you'll just have to start over; thankfully it's not terribly difficult.
- If it gets soggy, you can re-heat it to drive off the extra water the dough absorbed overnight. This is usually the result of high humidity, but is fixable!
You can also bake it in the oven to make hard dough figures and ornaments, then paint or otherwise decorate the surface. One of the comments below even suggests using baked play-dough as a salt lick for your pet rabbit! (thanks, redcore4!)
