Playing with Playdough plus my favourite recipe

Playdough is an all time favourite activity in our house. My girls never tire of playing with it. Stay tuned at the end of this post I share my all time favourite recipe. I'll let the pictures of our afternoon of playing with playdough speak for themselves.

 

A cookie with a candle

 

We had an after noon of some very serious work making our playdough cookies. They were perfect for an impromptu tea party.

 I have a favourite recipe I call old faithful as it never has failed me. I received this recipe in 1990 when I was in school for my Early Childhood Education certification. It has had to be re-photocopied a few times over the years but now sits in the front cover of an old notebook I write important recipes in so I always know where to find it.

 In almost 25 years in the childcare field this recipe has been made literally thousands of times and has been enjoyed by hundreds and hundreds of children. It's simple to make and lasts for weeks if sealed tight when storing.

Here is how you can make yours:

1) Gather your supplies. You will need:

-2 Cups flour
-1/2 Cup Salt
-4 Tablespoons Cream of Tartar (***or Alum but you MUST have one or the other. Do not substitute for anything else***)
-2 Cups Cold water
-2 Tablespoons Oil (oops forgot the oil in the picture)
-Stove, large pot, measuring cups & spoons and spoon to stir

*not pictured but you do need:
-Your choice of 2 Packs of Kool Aid or food colouring (see directions further down for the difference)

2) This recipe is so simple...put all the ingredients together in a pot.

If you are colouring the full batch as one colour add the Kool Aid packages now. Adding Kool Aid as colouring not only has a vibrant colour but also smells oh so good. Don't worry if your child tastes it (I don't recommend eating it though), it will not hurt them. They are likely to spit it out anyway as it tastes very salty. If you are using food colouring to add colour wait for further instructions.

This recipe can be doubled (as I did this time) but I don't recommend making a potful any bigger then doubling it as it gets really hard to stir when you triple the recipe and it won't cook properly.

3) Stir until mixed. It will still be clumpy.

4) {Adult help/supervision required here}Turn the stove to medium heat, place pot on stove and continually stir the ingredients. It will gradually begin to clump together.

 5) Keep stirring continually. Do not stop stirring! In a matter of minutes the ingredients will start to form a clump. Continue to roll the clump over in the pot and break it apart to make sure the inside of the clump is cooked all the way through.

 

 6) When it appears to be fully cooked and forms a large ball remove from pot and let cool on the counter for just a couple minutes.

7) When it is cool enough to touch, knead it for a minute or two until it's smooth (it's hard to knead and take pictures sorry).

8) If you are making a few different colours of playdough from one batch, divide the dough into equal parts. I doubled the above recipe as I wanted to have six different colours. Poke a finger into the middle of your dough ball and add four or five drops off food colouring.

9) Carfully knead the colour into the dough. You could use gloves but if you knead carefully it is possible to do this step without getting covered in food colouring; I promise. Continue to knead until the colour is even throughout your dough ball. You may need to add another drop or two of food colouring if you want it to be a darker shade.

10) Repeat the colour adding process until you have all the colours made that you wanted.

11) Place the playdough on  the table with some cookie cutters, rolling pins, gems, flowers and other craft goodies and sit back and enjoy your children's imaginations run wild. Better yet join in the fun and make a few cookies yourself.