How to Make Play Dough

How to make play dough, it only takes 1 minute! Everyone loves play dough- even I have to have a squeeze when we get it out! But you don’t need to buy the ready made brands, here is the recipe I use to make dough for a last minute playdate at home.

1 Minute Playdough recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
1 tablespoon of cream of tartar (Cream of Tartar is a natural powdered raising agent for use in scones and other baking recipes)
1 tablespoon of oil
I cup of boiling water (from the kettle) mixed with some food colouring

What to do:

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

Et voila! Makes playdough which lasts for ages in little plastic sandwich bags!

You can leave the dough uncoloured if you wish but kids love the different colours to mould, so if you end up with food colouring all over your hands (like I did!) here is how to get it off!

First try washing with soap and water and using a handcloth to give it a scrub

If that doesn’t work, try soaking a cloth in white vinegar and rubbing over your fingers

If the stains still aren’t budging, mix one part water with two parts Bicarbonate of Soda. I mixed 1 Tbsp water with 2 Tbsp Bicarbonate of Soda to form a watery paste. Then I poured this over my hands and rubbed vigorously with a hand cloth. This is what worked for me.

However if your stains are still there, alternate the white vinegar rub with the Bicarb of Soda paste rub rinsing your cloth well between each method, until the stains are gone.

If it takes you several attempts, this is normal. Food colourings can be hard to get off! Alternatively you could wear rubber gloves in the first place when you are mixing but I didn’t think ahead for this at the time. There was play dough to make!

Enjoy your low cost way to entertain the children on a rainy day!