Home Made Playdough Recipes

Play-Dough-Making Tips:

• Try using baby oil in place of cooking oil in play dough recipes- it smells better, won't mold, and remains soft for a long time. (Unless your kids tend to eat the play dough... then you'd better stick w/ cooking oil!) 
• Another way to make your play dough smell better is to use some vanilla or orange extract.
• To make play dough last longer, use cream of tartar and/or store it in the fridge. 
• For colored playdough: add food coloring, Kool-Aid or Gelatin mix to the water. To make several colors out of one batch, divide the finished dough into balls, then drip liquid coloring in a well down the middle (you can use a straw for this) and knead it in. 
• For brown colored playdough: add Crystal Light Original Iced tea or cocoa with the water.
• For sparkly play dough, add in glitter during the hand-mixing/kneading.
• Store all play-dough in an air-tight container or Ziploc bag.
• *All recipes on this page are non-edible! (You can google for an edible play-dough recipe, but I'd rather use cookie dough if we're going to eat it!)

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Best Play Dough 

Ingredients: 
1 cup flour
¼ cup salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil food coloring (For the best color try cake decorator's paste or liquid. Regular food coloring works too but is more pale.) 
1 tablespoon imitation vanilla extract

Directions: 

Combine the flour, salt and cream of tartar in saucepan. Add the water and food coloring. Whisk until smooth. Cook over medium heat until playdough is nearly set. Add the vanilla extract. Stir until blended, then remove and knead when cool.  You can triple or quadruple this recipe & cook it in a large pot with good results. 

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Long Lasting Play Dough 

Ingredients: 
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
Add:1 Tablespoon oil
1 cup water with food coloring in it

Directions: 

Combine ingredients and put mixture into a 2 quart pan, cook over medium to medium-high heat. At first it will seem like you have too much water but don't fret, it all cooks down to a big chunk ofplaydough in about 3 minutes. Stir until it sticks together and then put on a cutting board to cool a little. Once you can touch it, knead it until it's completely smooth. This recipe doubles well, and you can cut the dough w/ scissors without it sticking to the blades. The original recipe says it lasts 3-4 months (and it may last longer when using baby oil instead of cooking oil). 

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Gelatin Play Dough 

Ingredients: 
1 0.3 ounce package of sugar free strawberry, orange, or any other fruit gelatin 
2 cups flour 
1 cup salt 
4 Tablespoons cream of tarter 
2 cups boiling water 
2 Tablespoons cooking oil

Directions: 

Mix dry ingredients in pan, add the boiling water and cooking oil, stir over medium heat until it forms a ball let cool. This play-dough smells great! You can cut the picture from the gelatin box to use for labeling your container.

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Kool-aid Play Dough 

Ingredients:1 cup flour
½ cup salt
1 to 2 to 3 tsp cream of tartar
1 package Kool-Aid mix (6 g pkg)
1 cup water
1 Tbsp cooking oilDirections:

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium saucepan. Mix wet ingredients separately. Slowly add the wet to the dry and stir constantly over medium heat. It'll be gloppy at first, but that's ok. When the mixture thickens to dough and starts holding together in a shaggy ball, let cool a few minutes and then knead until smooth (you can do this on a slightly greased counter top, if it needs help not sticking). 

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Gingerbread Play Dough 

Ingredients: 
1 cup flour 
1/2 cup salt 
2 tsp. cream of tartar 
1 cup water 
1 tsp. veg. oil 
lots of cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, whatever!  
Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients.  Play with the spices till you get the scent you want and the color.  Mix water and oil together first and THEN add them to the dry ingredients and stir.  In a pot, cook the mixture for two to three minutes, stirring frequently.  The dough will start to pull away from the sides of the pan and clump together.  Take the dough out of the pan and knead the dough until it becomes soft and smooth.  Allow to cool and store in an air tight container.

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Microwave Play Dough #1 

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cups salt
2 cups water
2 tablespoons baby oil ( works better than regular oil)
2 tablespoons cream of tarterliquid food coloring

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients. Add water and oil. Stir well. Microwave on high 4 to 5 minutes. Stir again. Microwave another minute. Stir. Continue to microwave one minute, then stir, until dough is the consistency of mashed potatoes. Cool it enough to touch. Knead in food coloring until dough is desired color.  

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Microwave Play Dough #2 

Ingredients: 
6 tablespoons of cream of tartar,
3 cups plain flour,
 4 tablespoons of cooking oil,
1/2 cup of salt,
3 cups of water,
food coloring/ powder paint/ or powder Kool-Aid.

Directions: 

Combine all ingredients in microwave proof dish and beat until smooth. Cover with cling wrap and microwave for 7 minutes on high, stirring halfway through cooking. If the mixture is still gooey, microwave for another minute. Cool and store in an airtight container in fridge. (Since all microwaves cook different, be sure to watch the play dough while cooking.)

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Gluten-Free Play Dough #1 

Ingredients: 

• ½ cup rice flour 
• ½ cup cornstarch
• ½ cup salt
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 tsp cooking oil
• food coloring

Directions: 

Combine all ingredients except food coloring in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture thickens and forms a ball. Allow the dough to cool and then add in your food coloring. This dough seems sticky at first, but comes out nicely if you just keep kneading it. 

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Gluten-Free Play Dough #2 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4  cups  rice flour
• 1/2  cup  salt
• 2  tsp  cream of tartar
• 1  cup  water
• 1  Tbsp  oil
• 1/4  tsp  vanilla extract
• food coloring or sparkles (optional)

Directions:

Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a large pot. Add water and oil. Cook over medium heat until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly. Add vanilla extract (for smell, not taste). Mix thoroughly. Put play dough on a clean surface. When cool enough to handle, knead lightly.  

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If you try any of these recipes, comment below which one you tried and how you liked it!