As an early years teacher, making play dough is a weekly task. And it is soooo easy! This recipe requires no cooking, as long as you use hot water (I use just-boiled water just to be sure!) Don’t worry if you don’t have cream of tartar – it will still work, it just wont last or store as well as it will if you do have it. If we run out of cream of tartar at work, we still make it, it just goes a bit crumbly after a couple of days.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of plain flour
- 1 cup of just-boiled water
- 1/2 cup of salt
- 2 tablespoons of oil (any will do)
- 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar.
Optional Ingredients:
- Essential oils – tea tree, lavender, vanilla are good, strong scents
- Herbs/spices – cinnamon is so good at Christmas time!
- Food colouring – add to the mixture NOT to the dough once formed to get the best colour
Method:
- Use the cup to put the flour and salt in.
- Then add the cream of tartar and the oil
- Now add the water
- If adding any oils, spices or food colouring, add these now
- Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until it comes together and doesn’t stick the bowl – this will happen very quickly – in about a minute or so
- Leave to cool
- If adding herbs, add these once cooled
And that’s it! Basically throw everything in a bowl and stir! Oils, spices and colouring are best stirred into the mixture to give the strongest results. However, I love adding herbs once the play dough has formed cooled down as they add an element of texture too which can be lost if they are added earlier.
This will last for a good week if kept in a sealed container.
Easy, fun and (hopefully!) fool-proof!
