Best Homemade Playdough!
I know the title might seem a little over the top, but just trust me on this one guys. This homemade playdough is amazing! It only takes stuff that’s probably already in your pantry, and it gives you the softest, easiest to work with dough that I’ve ever found, anyway.
It doesn’t stain, it’s washable, and it’s taste-safe (although I will give you that it doesn’t taste so hot…). This makes it perfect for giving to your kids – no harmful chemicals or weird ingredients to worry about.
Have I sold you yet? Seriously, give it a try. It’ll change your life – or at least your kids playtime 🙂
Best Homemade Playdough
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup salt
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- food coloring
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a saucepan.
- Cook ingredients over medium heat, stirring constantly until the dough comes together.
- Allow dough to cool, then turn out and knead until dough is elastic.
- Add color and knead until even. Allow dough to cool completely before giving to kids.
Notes
Homemade Playdough, Step-by-Step!
Start by putting all your ingredients in a saucepan. I actually subbed 1/2 tsp cornstarch for the cream of tartar (made one batch too many snickerdoodles!). The dough came out just fine, so that’s an option for you folks.
You’ll get a nice white-ish paste, like this:
Now comes the part that gives you arm muscles. You get to stir this over medium heat until it starts to look like dough. The stirring can get hard, I won’t lie, but you have to keep going because this stuff wants to stick to the bottom and burn. Your final product will look like this:
It kind of looks like mashed potatoes, right? Anyway, let the mashed potatoes cool until you can handle it easily, then turn it out and knead it for a minute or two until it feels like playdough should.
If you want to add color, now’s the time. Just put a little food coloring in the center of your dough ball and knead until the color is even. Your dough needs to be kept in an airtight container or Ziploc bag so it doesn’t dry out. Provided you take care of it, your dough will last for months.
Did you try it? Leave a comment and let us know how it went!
Even though my kids are older, I could see them enjoying this on a rainy day as a “throwback” to their younger years. Will Pin it for later!
I still enjoy playing with playdough 🙂 Hope you guys have fun with it!
Doesn’t the food coloring dye your hands, or childrens hands?
When you first knead it in, yes. Once it’s thoroughly kneaded in, we’ve never had any trouble with staining while playing with it. If you’re worried about it, I’ve seen some folks dye theirs with store-bought washable finger paints and they say it works well!
I’m going to make this with my 3-year-old this weekend. I’ve been searching for an easy, all-natural playdough recipe. This is fantastic!
Thank you! I hope you love it as much as we do 🙂
I was so excited to make this with grandkids. I have a 7 yr old and a 2 and a half year old and they love playdough. We made this twice exact to the directions and it ended up so sticky. We even added extra flour left them our in the air overnight and they just got stickier. The girls were disappointed this morning when we ended up throwing them away, I wish they would have worked.
I’m so sorry to hear that! I’m wondering if climate has anything to do with it, especially from the fact that it got stickier when left in the air. Where I live, it dries up hard as a rock if you leave it out!
If it turns out climate is the problem, I’d recommend upping the cream of tartar or even adding a teaspoon of cornstarch to help it gel up. So sorry it didn’t work and best of luck!