Make your own playdough in less than 4 minutes with only 4 ingredients. And it’s better than the stuff you buy in the store. I swear.

We had about our 4ooth snow day of the year today.

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making my own playdough for a while now. Today was the perfect opportunity.

Last week I looked around online for recipes.

All of them called for cream of tartar, so I bought some the last time I went grocery shopping.

I made a batch using it.

And then I wondered why you needed it.

From what I could figure out (online again), it makes the playdough last longer.

Like for six months.

I don’t know about you, but I have never in my life had any amount of playdough last for six months.

So I made a batch without it.

It turned out awesome, and it was SUPER easy.

The kids played with it all day. It didn’t dry out or crumble or get sticky or anything.

So this is what we did.

First here are the ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup water

food coloring

(if you have it you can add in 2 teaspoons cream of tartar)

 

Here’s what you do:

Heat a saucepan over low/medium heat.

If the pan is a little preheated, you won’t have to mix the ingredients for very long.

Put the flour, salt, (and cream of tartar if you have it) and oil in a saucepan.

Mix the food coloring into the cup of water, and then pour that into the flour/salt/oil mixture.

Stir.

The mixture will thicken quickly.

When it starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and sticks to the spoon,

like this:

it’s done.

Remove the dough from the pan and place on a plate or a bowl or directly on the counter to cool

Sprinkle a little flour on your counter and place the dough on top of it.

Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough, just as if you are making bread.

Then, knead. If there are any lumps in the dough, this will work them out.

If the dough is sticky, you can sprinkle in some more flour until it’s the consistency you want.

We used cylindrical blocks for rolling pins, and our limited collection of Play-Doh toys.

They worked great.

Every kid had fun and was able to roll the dough and easily cut out shapes.

(okay, she had a little help)

We made a bunch of different colors. I put them in ziploc bags and they are in the fridge, ready for another go around tomorrow!

Don’t believe me? Watch me do it here in less than 4 minutes.

Just don’t make fun of my face at the end. I thought my husband had stopped recording 😉

***NOTE — the day after making this, some of the dough was a little sticky. I kneaded in some more flour, and it was as good as the day before!

Make Your Own Playdough 1 cup flour 1/2 cup salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 cup water food coloring ***2 teaspoons cream of tartar if you have it — not necessary Put first three ingredients in saucepan over medium heat. Squeeze food coloring into water and pour into pan. Mix over low/medium heat until dough sticks to spoon. Remove dough from pan and cool. Sprinkle with flour and knead until smooth. Store in a ziplock bag in the fridge. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ***if you have it, use 2 teaspoons cream of tartar If you don’t and it gets sticky in a couple days, you can knead in more flour the next time you use it***               Have fun!

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