Homemade Play Dough
Save money and make your own play dough using pantry ingredients. You can add color to your play dough by using old crayons too!
Equipment:
- Small Saucepan
- Wooden spoon or other sturdy stirring utensil
- Wax Paper or Parchment Paper
Materials:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 tsp cream of tartar (see notes)
- 2/3 cup warm water
- 2 tsp vegetable oil or olive oil
- 1 crayon - with paper wrapper removed (see notes)
Instructions:
- Mix together the flour, salt, and cream of tartar and set aside.
- Place the oil and the unwrapped crayon in a small saucepan. Heat on the stove over medium heat until the crayon has melted. This will go pretty quickly.
- Slowly add in the cup of warm water, stirring as you go. Continue to stir over the heat for about 30 seconds more to heat things together.
- Then add in the flour mixture, a bit at a time, stirring as you go. You will probably be able to remove the pan from the heat for this step. If you feel it is not coming together yet, put it back on the heat.
- As you continue to stir, the ingredients will all come together into a ball. Remove from the pan and set your ball of play dough on a piece of wax paper or parchment. Let it cool slightly and then knead the ball a bit for a final mixing of the ingredients.
- Store your homemade play dough in a container with a tight fitting lid.
Notes:
You can also tint this recipe with a 1/4 teaspoon of food coloring instead of the crayon.
You may be able to leave the cream of tartar out of the recipe, however my understanding is that it makes the mixture a little smoother.
This recipe is a smaller version of my old recipe. If you would like to make the larger original recipe it is: 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 4 tsp cream of tartar, 2 Tbl vegetable oil, 1 tsp food coloring, and 2 cups of water. Combine and cook on medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly until the mixture turns into a more solid mass.