I love love love love LOVE play dough.
When I was a kid, my sister and I would spend hours creating whole meals out of play dough. Burgers, peas, carrots, french fries, chicken nuggets…anything we could think of we would make.
Now that I’m all grown up, one of my favorite experiences to share with the little ones in my life is making play dough together. When my friends and their kids come to my house, they always go home with a bag of play dough that they made.
Here’s my super easy, kid friendly, NO COOK (yea!) recipe for play dough.
THE ONLY NO COOK PLAY DOUGH RECIPE YOU’LL EVER NEED
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup salt (finer grain works best)
- 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
- 2 tablespoons vegetable or melted coconut oil
- 1 – 1 1/2 cups boiling water
- food coloring or liquid watercolor
How To
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, cream of tartar, and oil. Let your kids get their hands in there and mix things up!
- Add food coloring to a liquid measuring cup. Be careful! Some colorings might stain when concentrated!
- For bright colors:
- gel food coloring – use just a few drops
- liquid food coloring – I use about 1/4 of a little bottle
- liquid watercolor – use A LOT (best for pastels)
- For bright colors:
- GROWN UPS ONLY: Add 1 cup boiling water to measuring cup with food coloring, then slowly pour and stir into dry ingredients. Your play dough should turn into a sticky, wettish dough. If it looks like shaggy bread dough, you need more water. This magical, color changing step is always super fun! Make predictions together about what will happen when you add the water.
- Get a little extra flour and flour your countertop/table. Turn your play dough out onto the counter and knead additional flour into the play dough until it’s just right! The dough will be hot for little hands, so I like to separate it into chunks so they cool quickly. Kids love to feel the warm, sticky play dough change as they work more flour in. Plus they don’t have to wait to play with it!
A Few Tips
- I don’t recommend letting your kids eat play dough (yuck!) but if you use food coloring, this recipe is safe to eat and you don’t have to worry if your two year old shoves a fistful in their mouth!
- For extra small kids, measure out your ingredients into separate bowls beforehand so they can dump everything in all by themselves.
- If you want to add a little more glitz and glamour, add scented oils to your water or glitter when you’re kneading the dough! Note: These are not food safe additions and should not be eaten!
Living Arrows 
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