Homemade Play-Doh Recipe

Homemade Play-Doh Recipe

 

Homemade play-doh is the best!  First of all, it's cheaper than the store-bought stuff, which is great.  Secondly, you can customize the texture so that it's nicer than the store-bought stuff.  Finally, you can customize it to have an amazing scent!  Although this recipe requires "cooking" it's really just stirring a few ingredients over medium heat for about 5 minutes, so it is easy.  Plus, the ingredients are so cheap that it won't cause a major panic even if the first batch or two aren't perfect!

 

 

 

If you've ever thought about making homemade play-doh but didn't know where to start, check this out.

 

Ingredients:

*1 cup white flour

*1/2 cup salt
*2 tablespoon Cream of Tartar (find it in the spice section)
*2 tablespoons oil
*1 cup water
*optional: food coloring, Kool-Aid packet, lotion, or essential oils

Directions:
I use the standard recipe, but I like to add an extra tablespoon of oil during the kneading process because I think it helps reduce salt residue when playing with it. Also, some recipes suggest adding food coloring during the kneading part, but that totally messed up my hands. I add that stuff at the beginning before turning the stove on. :) After typing these up I realized this looks like a long recipe, but it's really super easy to make!

1. Mix the flour, salt, Cream of Tartar, and one tablespoon of oil in a nonstick pan. If using a Kool-Aid packet for color & scent, add it at this time, too.
2. Add water and mix well before cooking.  If using food coloring (which is not necessary during a Kool-Aid batch), add it at this time. Once things start to heat up, it's harder to get an even distribution of coloring so I like to make sure the color looks even before turning on the stove.
3. Turn on the stove & cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 – 5 minutes, with a heat-safe spatula or a wooden spoon. Dough will become difficult to stir and form a “clump”. Make sure it is a stiff clump without any runny stuff. Undercooked play-doh will result in a runny, sticky mess.
4. Remove from stove, place in a bowl or on a heat-safe counter and knead for 5 minutes. Since it's hot, use wooden spoons or spatulas to start the kneading process.
5. Once everything looks nicely mixed and feels warm rather than hot, you can ditch the wooden spoons & knead with hands. Little helpers love to help at this time, too! 
6. Once everything is mixed together and looks good, try mixing in 1/2 cup of lotion where one of the first 3 ingredients is "glycerin."  This can add an extra silkiness to the play-doh and leave less salt residue after playing.  I love hand lotion in play-doh!
7. Store in an airtight container or bag at room temperature for up to 3 months.

Bonus ideas: Sometimes, it can be fun to add glitter to a batch. For the winter or a Frozen party, imagine blue food coloring gel, peppermint essential oil (not food extract), and white glitter. For the spring, you can use brown food coloring gel to make it look like earth & maybe add in a pine or evergreen essential oil. Sometimes I add my personal body lotion to a batch. Since I play with it as much as Jake, I figure I get to have some custome batches, too. :) I've made batches where I've replaced water with TAZO Passion tea. Those batches have a light pink color & smell like hibiscus tea. Other teas could work, too. I've thought about replacing the water with coffee, but haven't tried that yet. Someone familiar with doTerra oils could even create a therapeutic batch for the family.

Photo of our orange Kool-Aid batch:

Sometimes, I make a batch of tea ahead of time, and once it's cooled to room temperature, I use it instead of water.  When I made a batch with TAZO Passion tea, the batch had a faint tea scent and the dough looked kind of fleshy.  When we put it into a Play-Doh farmer & made it grow hair, it kind of looked like he had a bumpy scalp.

Old apples to new apple juice

This morning, I noticed that we had some Granny Smith apples that were still totally edible but were starting to develop some unappetizing brown spots that wouldn't look pretty on apple slices.  At lunch, Jake asked for apple juice, and rather than tell him that we were out & that I'd pick some up later, I decided to make an impromptu batch of apple juice.

When he found out he would get to help, he was so excited!

After I cut up the apples and showed him how to drop in the pieces, I let him drop in some pieces, too.

After we got a little juice, I let him try some.  I figured it'd be pretty tart so I skipped tasting at this point. :)

It was unfiltered so I'm sure it was a bit gritty as well as sour, but he thought his apple juice was terrific! 

A couple of times, I even let him drop some pieces in and gently press down the top.  He was so proud to help.

After we finished juicing the apples, I let him take some more sips before straining.

Since it was just a small batch for the two of us, I skipped straining through a cheesecloth.  I poured the glass through a strainer a couple of times, though.  When the rough foam looked mostly strained away, I put it into a sauce pan on low and then added some mulling spices.  It was time to get ready for the school bus so we haven't tasted the cider yet, but when he gets home he'll get to try out his cider, too.

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2 mile hike at Tolt MacDonald Park

Since today was a spectacular October day with 70+ degree weather and clear blue skies, Jake and I hit a new hiking trail.  While we've been to Tolt-MacDonald Park lots of times to throw rocks in the river, we had never walked down the North Shelter Loop.  So, today, we checked out this trail (we took the red route)  http://www.kingcounty.gov/recreation/parks/inventory/toltmacdonald.aspx.

We started out by crossing the suspension bridge over the Snoqualmie River (Snoqualmie Falls is about 12 miles to the right.)

 



The path between the bridge & the picnic shelter was wide and rocky.  It was a little uncomfortable for walking, but I'm sure the well-groomed path is easily accessible year-round for any service vehicles that need to attend to the picnic shelter.  I was glad that Jake happened to be wearing some boots that provided ankle support & I had on good athletic shoes.  This walk wouldn't be comfortable in flats.  At one point, a gust of wind hit the tops of the trees and Jake loved standing among all of dry, falling leaves.

When we arrived at the picnic shelter, I was surprised at how large it was.  There were 6 tables that could easily seat 10 people each along with 2 BBQs.  Jake & I sat down to have a picnic of bananas, crackers, and water.

Originally, I planned on turning around at the picnic shelter, but I wanted to check out the camping sites just to the north. 

We first discovered camping site #36.  It was a quiet, tree-lined spot with a view of the Snoqualmie River.  It's not possible to walk down to the river because it's on a 10' cliff.  While the cliff isn't right next to the fire pit, it's close enough that I wouldn't want a preschooler to camp at this site. 

 

Just north of #36 was #37, which has has a steep but accessible path down to the river.  Here we encountered a father-daughter duo.  The dad was packing up some gear and the daughter could be heard splashing down on the beach.  I felt bad that we had intruded on their site & tried to move Jake on his way, but Jake had about 100 questions for the dad.  Was that their tent? Could they sleep in it?  Could Jake sleep in it?  Did he have lunch? Did he have crackers? Did he know that Jake likes bananas?  Where was his daughter? At the river?  Where?  At one point, Jake asked how to get down.  The dad thought that Jake had asked how to take the tent down, so he called to his daughter to ask if she'd show Jake how to take the tent down.  The dad looked a little proud that he'd found a way to use Jake as an excuse to have the girl break it down on her own.  :)  As she got to work, we continued on our way north.

Beyond the camping area, the trail narrowed to compact dirt.  It was really comfortable for walking and the autumn foliage was great.  Jake loved picking up the humongous maple leaves that were larger than his head.  His snack had kicked in & we were both happily exploring along.

 

 

In this picture, Jake noticed a small branch going across the trail.  He actually lifted it up so that I could get by without getting scratched.  Random acts of kindness are appreciated by this mamma!  :)

Although we had only walked a mile or so, the first part had been rocky & it was almost hot out.  We were both looking forward to getting to the river at the north end of this stretch.  However, when we got there, we saw two bikes.

We continued down to the beach & discovered a man wearing only some red underwear & a lady in a bra.  The rocks didn't look super comfortable to me, but they looked pretty happy.  I tried shuffling Jake quickly back up the trail to give them some privacy, but I couldn't do it before he yelled out, "Why do you have red underwear?"  So in one hour or so we had managed to interrupt a camping family and a couple looking for some alone time.  Oops.

From the river, Jake wanted to keep going north, but I knew that we needed to turn around.  I let him climb over a couple of logs and then we headed back.  We stopped for another little snack at the picnic shelter and took a detour so that he could spend some time down at the river.  It was a great afternoon!  

Watercolor, Salt, and Glue Painting

 Jake & I did some salt painting today with glue, salt, and paint.  This can be a fun way to work on fine motor skills, play with color blending, and say "YES" to a mess!  :)

To start with, we drizzled glue on paper.  I started with regular printer paper & it seemed fine for about 20 minutes, but then the water from the paint & the glue made it kind of fragile.  We moved on to paint-grade paper & that seemed a little more durable. 

I drizzled some designs and let Jake drizzle others.

 

Um, too much, Jake.

Next, we sprinkled Kosher salt on the glue.  This gives the paint something to hold on to.  He started out being a little careful.

 It kind of stuck to his hands a little.

It was fun to watch it snow on the page.

 

 It was even more fun to dump, of course.

 After dumping the salt on the glue, I shook the salt around the page like glitter & tossed the excess.  Next, I put some watercolors in an ice cube tray and let Jake use a pipette dropper to drop paint on the salt.  He started out dropping on the salt, but then dropped on the paper, the counter, the water bowl, and even other paint trays.  Excessive paint mixing resulted in lots of grayish brown on the final result, but we had fun!

Um, that is only for dropping paint on the paper.  Do not get any other ideas, mister.

 

 

The colors dried pretty muted, but by the end it was a muddy gray anyway. It was nice to have a pic to hang on our new art wall in the playroom.  :)