Cheap, safe and very, very easy to make play dough
This has been my pet project over the last couple of weeks. Anyone who has spent more than fifteen minutes stuck in the house with a toddler on a rainy day will know that play dough is the way forward. The stuff you buy in the shops is usually ages three and up, but homemade play dough is safe for littler ones and extremely cheap. It is very salty though, so try to stop them actually eating it.
I’ve test driven a bunch of recipes for this stuff online, and made some horrible mistakes, so you don’t have to (personal best: actually having to throw away a stainless steel saucepan). While my recipe is staggeringly simple, attention to detail is the key. That and not looking away for a second (easier said than done when your toddler is smooshing half chewed raisins into the living room carpet). Some really basic things seem to make a big difference to the finished play dough, so I’ve given some pretty specific recommendations. On your own head be it if you ignore them.
If you make some yourself, be sure to build a dinosaur with it and leave a picture in the comments section. And, er, don’t blame me if your saucepan ends up in the bin…
Rainy Day Rescue – How to Make Perfect Play Dough for Your Toddler
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain white flour – must be plain, must be white
- 1 cup table salt
- 1 heaped tsp cream of tartar – don’t leave it out, it makes all the difference! Find it in the baking section of any largish supermarket
- 1¾ cups tap water
- 2½ tbsp vegetable oil – I have tried other oils and found plain vegetable oil to be by far the best for creating a smooth dough
- Food colouring of your choice – I used red, orange, yellow, green, blue and pink. Baking section of a good supermarket, as before
Tools
- A good, non-stick saucepan, frying pan or wok – the non-stick-er the better; uncoated metal pans really don’t work well and result in sticky dough
- A wooden spoon or, better still, a wooden spatula or paddle
- A largish bowl
- Latex or rubber gloves – yes, really. My right hand is bright red up to the wrist, possibly permanently. Let this be a warning to you
Method
- Put the dry ingredients into the pan. Mix the water and oil together in a separate jug or bowl and then pour into the dry ingredients.
- Turn on the heat under the pan, to medium. Start stirring your mixture constantly, and scraping it away from the sides of the pan. Very quickly, it will thicken and turn doughy, incorporating the loose bits around the sides. It’ll become quite tough to stir with your spoon or paddle.
- Keep semi-kneading it in the pan with the spoon until it reaches a consistency a bit thicker than shop-bought Play-Doh. Your fire alarm will probably go off at this point. Try not to panic. When the dough is good and hot and fairly tough, turn off the heat and let it cool down.
- Once it’s cool enough to handle, divide it into three or four equal portions. Put a few drops of your first food colour into your clean bowl, put on your gloves and knead the dough in the bowl. Keep folding and pummelling it until it’s a nice smooth colour. You can add more food dye if you want a darker colour, or mix two to make colours like orange and purple. Remember to wash the bowl and your gloves between each colour, so you don’t contaminate the next batch.
- Voila! Your play dough is ready to be played with. This recipe makes enough for three or four different coloured pots – I made two lots to get the seven colours you see in the photo. By the way, if you’re wondering where I got those amazing pots, they’re here
. Definitely on my list of Top Ten Useful Things For Surviving Motherhood (coming soon).
- Store your play dough in airtight containers or wrapped in clingfilm, preferably in the fridge. Remember that it’s essentially a foodstuff so it’ll spoil eventually, but it should last a good while. It also makes an ace present for a toddler friend’s birthday party (just remember to tell their parents what’s in it, just to cover your arse). My toddler played with the homemade play dough for two-and-a-half hours this rainy afternoon, beating her personal attention-span best by two hours and twenty minutes. That’s what I call a result.
