How to make organic play dough

If your family is like mine, you try to limit the amount of exposure to harmful dyes and chemicals. This is a fantastic healthy recipe for playdough that smells better, lasts longer and is much more pliable than the commercial kind!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Flour
• water
• salt
• cream of tarter
• cooking oil
• measuring cup
• measuring spoon
• boiling pot
• stove
• natural coloring
• flavoring

1. Before you start making the play dough, you need to determine what flavor/scent you want your play dough to have. Here are some suggestions and the necessary added ingredients: apple spice - apple juice, cinnamon, nutmeg ~ peppermint - peppermint extract ~ orange - orange extract. As you can see from these suggestions, you can make the play in just about any flavor and scent you can imagine! You can also add colorant in any color you can find at your whole foods or natural market.

2. For the sake of time we will be using the apple pie play dough. So, for this, I use 1 cup of apple juice in place of 1 of the cups of water (2 cups water 1 cup juice, instead of 3 cups water)

3. In your cooking pot you are going to add all the ingredients, so for the apple pie play dough, 2 cups water (you would add color to the water if you want a colored play dough), 1 cup juice, 3 cups flour, 2 Tablespoons Cream of Tartar, and 3 Tablespoons cooking oil.

4. Mix all the ingredients together while cooking over medium heat. Stir constantly. The mixture become somewhat stiff. When it starts pulling away from the sides of the pan and sticking together in a large ball, remove it from the heat. Let it cool slightly

5. Knead the dough like you would knead bread until it is pliable. Store it in an airtight container. Your play dough is done, and now you can enjoy watching the children play!

Tips & Warnings

• Ziplock bags with a zipper are fantastic for storing the playdough.
• You can easily cut this recipe in half and make two different flavors/scents with the one recipe!
• Remember to add the food coloring to the water first before adding the water to the rest of the ingredients in the pot so that it is evenly distributed throughout the play dough
• If your child wants to help, they can add the ingredients to the pot before you turn the burner on and can help knead the play dough after it has been cooled. But, children should not do the cooking part of the recipe.

[nolegirl]

on 5/10/2008 Sounds easy!