I have talked about making homemade playdough for Luna since before she was born. She will be three next month so I figured it was time to follow through. I found this recipe and looked at a few others and realized they are all generally the same I just made some minor adjustments. It was super easy and actually pretty fun.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 4 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 cups of water
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- gel food coloring
This comes together super easily and pretty quickly!
Start by mixing together the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a deep pot on the stove.
Next turn on the stove to medium heat and add in the vegetable oil and water. If you are making a single color, add your food coloring now too. If you plan to split the batch into multiple colors, wait to add the food coloring.
Now just keep stirring until the mixture thickens and forms into a ball. It should only take a few minutes. I found a silicone spatula to work really well for this.
Remove from the heat and place on wax paper until cooled. Next, knead it for a few minutes until it really comes together and is nice and smooth. Then form it into a dome and cut into 6 equal slices. To add the food coloring I like to form each slice into a bowl-like shape and add the food coloring into the center of the ‘bowl’. Then start folding the edges of the bowl in to cover the food coloring and just keep folding the dough in on itself until the food coloring is mixed into the dough. I found this to be the best method to avoid getting food coloring all over your hands. This way allows the dough to absorb most of the coloring and allow you to really evenly distribute the color, while avoiding staining your hands. Once the color is fully absorbed you don’t have to work about any dye transfer on your hands, at least from my experience with the gel food coloring I used.
Once you’ve mixed in all your colors you want to store them in air tight containers/bags. You could use a simple zip-lock bag but I chose to use these plastic containers. Online there is a minimum order count but I got them in store for $.99 a piece.
I’m so happy with how they turned out! I plan on making another batch (probably for her birthday or easter) that are pastel blue and greens.
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