Saturday, November 7, 2009

SUPER EASY PLAY DOUGH

I've tried many play dough recipes over the years and this one is, by far, the best yet. It is made with common pantry items and is ready to play with (literally) in a few minutes!! It's soft, pliable and super easy to work with. When the kids are done with it,keep it in an airtight container in the fridge.



 EASY PLAY DOUGH
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup table salt
2 cups water
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
food coloring (*see note)

Put everything in a large, heavy bottomed, sauce pan and cook (stirring) on medium high until this comes away from the sides of the pan and thickens to the consistency of Play Doh (it just takes a couple minutes). Make sure you have a very sturdy wooden spoon to stir this with and it takes a little elbow power at the very end.

Remove the cooked dough from the sauce pan. It's going to be HOT, so be careful. I used my stand mixer which cools the dough down as it mixes. Knead (by machine or by hand) until the dough becomes smooth.


If you want the play dough to be all the same color, add the food coloring with the water before cooking. I wanted to make TWO colors, so I divided the cooked dough in half and mixed one color at a time in my stand mixer.

If you are going to knead the dough by hand, use rubber gloves at this stage or you will end up with green fingernails.

The play dough color DOES NOT come off on your hands AFTER the dough is fully mixed.



*NOTE: The colors in this photo were obtained by using Wilton frosting color paste, which is very concentrated color. You can use ANY food coloring that you like (or NO food coloring).