Carver has been bugging me wanting me to make playdough. I have a big trunk in my basement that has LOTS of playdough toys in it. Every time he sees the trunk he asks me to make playdough.
I’ve been making playdough for the kiddos for years. When I was deep into childcare I made all sorts of versions. I’d make white playdough and put glitter in it over the winter and we pretended it was snow. I’d make orange playdough in the fall and add pumpkin pie spice to it so it had that amazing smell. I’ve done many other things too.
Today, it was a plain playdough day. Here’s my recipe.
I quadrupled the recipe. After all of the ingredients are in the pan, it’s important that you stay right next to the stove and keep stirring. This can burn if you leave it but if you’re there, it will turn out perfect. In the photo below you can see it is starting to clump up…
It needs to keep clumping. The stuff kind of sticks to the pan and I just continue to scrap it off.
After it’s mostly in a clump put it on a lightly floured surface. I let it cool for a bit because it’s hot. Then as things cool, I start kneading the dough.
I add a bit of flour but not much at all…really the least amount possible. If you look at the picture, this is all the flour that’s needed.
Initially, the dough will stick to my fingers but then once it doesn’t, it’s ready to be played with.
I have lots of old playdough sets. I pick them up at the thrift store. I pulled some of them out and they haven’t been used for a bit. To be honest, I haven’t had them out since 2020 when Covid hit. Playdough is a great way to transfer germs and now I’m finally comfortable with letting them play again.
The sets were all a bit icky. They had a film of old playdough on them. I threw all of the pieces in the dishwasher and they were just great.
So, now we are back in business and will be playing playdough. I’ll take turns rotating out the sets. This week it’s been making burgers and fries
and the ice cream set. Next week I’m pulling out the farm playdough set.
I love pulling out old toys and seeing kids all excited about them all over again.
Awesome! What great fun! :-) :-)
This post reminded me of making play doh for my own kids, a loooong time ago. I know the grands will enjoy the new toys.
Great fun for the kids – even kids who are oder. I had fun playing with it with my grands. Great color!
Lucky kids!!!
Brings back memories… what fun! Thanks for sharing your recipe and the scent ideas!
This seems like an unusual recipe. I would love to try it. That handwritten info at the bottom: is that for another recipe or is that part of the play dough????
Such all round fun thanks for the reminder.
Rotating toys is the antidote to boredom!
I made playdough many years ago when the kids were little (they are 55 & 59 now!) but the recipe didn’t call for cooking it. I don’t have that recipe any more or I would share it. I always felt the homemade recipe was safer because I knew what was in it.
Homemade playdough is the best! I made and gave homemade playdough kits to friends for Christmas, they had Christmas cookie cutters, plastic presents and candy canes in them to make a Christmas scene.
When I used to make playdough for the preschool classes, I’d use a hand eggbeater to mix the wet & dry ingredients until smooth, then cook & stir. I found it made a much smoother & easier batch. Also, if you cook it a bit longer than just when it clumps, you don’t have to add more flour in the kneading step at the end.
Hi Cat thanks for the ideas. I like having it not getting so clumpy so my pan is a little easier to clean. HA!!