Homemade Play Dough

Recently, I have seen several recipes on Pinterest for homemade play dough. I mentioned I was interested in making some for Eliza, and my mother-in-law, Cheryl, gave me the best recipe. As a preschool teacher, Cheryl tried a number of versions until she found this winning recipe. Today, she and Eliza made a batch, and I was extremely impressed with how wonderful the play dough turned out.

It took less than 10 minutes to make and was a big hit with Eliza, who enjoyed rolling the dough and stamping out shapes with various cookie cutters.

Here is the simple recipe:

2 cups of water
3 tbsp of cooking oil
2  1/2 cups of sifted flour
1/2 cup of salt
1 tbsp of cream of tartar
food coloring of your choice

Boil the water, oil, and the food coloring.* Remove from heat and stir in salt, flour, and cream of tartar. Knead thoroughly. Store in covered container in refrigerator. As seen in the pictures above, a food processor comes in handy with this recipe.

*To make things more exciting, Cheryl added nearly an entire, tiny bottle of green food coloring in order for the color to be very vibrant. She also added a few drops of lavender to give the dough a pleasant smell.

Additionally, the dough doesn't have to be stored in the refrigerator. It may last longer that way, but apparently a tightly sealed Ziploc bag is more than sufficient.

And there you go! After seeing how cheap and easy this play dough is to make, I cannot understand why anyone would ever chose to purchase it. I hope you (and/or your children) enjoy this recipe as much as Eliza!