Homemade play dough recipe!

Posted by spots (Singapore, Singapore) on 27 October 2009 in Miscellaneous and Portfolio.

This entry was supposed to be posted last week, as part of my "Recipe of the Week" series. However, my laptop DIED and only resurrected today, so apologies that this is late!

The kids took out their play dough box on Saturday and to our horror, all our play dough had gone hard and crusty. You should have seen Ben try to "slice" the rock-like substance. We quickly decided that we would make our own play dough, having heard from people how easy and economical it was to do so.

True enough, this recipe yielded amazing result--soft, pliable playdough in 1 minute, with no cooking involved. And if kept in zip lock bags, I'm told this playdough will last for weeks--well I can't verify that since it's only been a couple of days. But so far, it's been great!

I got this recipe from Becoming Domestic, a blog.

1 minute Playdough recipe:

1/2 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
1 tbsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp oil
1 cup of boiling water
1 tsp food colouring

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix vigorously with the hot water.

That's it!!!

I kid you not! (We made 4 batches of play dough, 1 batch=recipe above.)

Enjoy!

Comments (16)

island from Brisbane, Australia

yep, it is definitely more economical and also safe to play with (no chemicals). plus ben and dan can make them with you and they can choose their own colours to make. you should be able to keep them for about 2-3 months. i play with it often with toddlers at mum's group :) i like purple ones - they're cool! ;)

28 Oct 2009 12:15am

Angela from Singapore

Hi Ruth, thanks for sharing. Now I know what to do with my kids when I am on leave... ;)

28 Oct 2009 7:49am

Rachel from Singapore, Singapore

mine is almost the same recipe except that I've always cooked mine over medium heat until smooth. Remove from pan and knead until blended smooth. worked great in the US but here, even in ziploc, it got mouldy. maybe we contaminated it somehow or didn't close ziploc properly.

28 Oct 2009 2:16pm

spots from Singapore, Singapore

5 days and counting... no mould yet!

29 Oct 2009 1:37pm

Sabrina from Singapore

Wow! Great job! I was just wondering how to rehydrate the dried up play dough.

7 Nov 2009 1:31pm

angela from Sierra Leone

Hi Ruth,

may I check with u what flour did you use? There are so many kinds out there... Plain flour? ALL purpose flour or self raising flour? Sorry if i sounded silly... ;)

9 Nov 2009 8:33am

spots from Singapore

think i used jus plain flour!

in case anyone is wondering, my computer has died, which is why I can't post anymore pics :( i hope to resolve this soon!

13 Nov 2009 7:44am

angela from Singapore

Oh dear... **prays hard for Ruth's puter to resurrect soon....**

17 Nov 2009 8:41am

GY from Fonty, France

I would never have thought of cream of tartar and oil! But I can see how oil makes sense.

17 Nov 2009 2:36pm

Mrs_Cullen from Perth, Australia

I Waz just wondering if you can use Self raising flour I dont have plain flour and really want to make it????
And i dont want it to turn out rubbish
Wats the recipe???

22 Nov 2009 9:28am

spots from Singapore

hi angela, i used plain flour. i think self raising flour should be fine.

by the way, it's been a month, and still no mould!

28 Nov 2009 5:24am

Alyssa from Singapore

Heh, when I was young, my mama just to make play dough for me :) I think she used the same receipe as you.

9 Dec 2009 8:36am

Jodie from United States

Tried this for the kids today and they loved it!! Had to add more flour but we are at high altitude so I have to do this to many things. Thanks for the great recipe!!

21 Aug 2012 7:46pm

Aussie Mum from Geelong, Australia

I made it today, SR flour worked fine. (I normally use plain but only had SR today) I have made dozens of batches on the stove and this was SO easy. I will always be making this way in future. I simply had the mixer going with the dry ingredients in it and added the wet ingredients. I looked a mess but ignored it for a couple of minutes on slow speed and perfect playdough. My only addition is to add glitter for added sparkle for your little princess.

6 Sep 2013 4:10am

Cowe from United States

Awful recipe. Had to add another cup of flour and half cup of salt because it came out sticky goo. It's still too soft to do muh more than squish. Being high altitude can't account for this mess.

28 Oct 2015 5:57pm

Rozaini De Santis from Marrickville, Australia

Have tried the no cook play dough many times, just cannot get the right consistency ... will stick to the cooked play dough, smooth, malleable and so therapeutic!

17 Mar 2017 10:33am

next day →

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