Homemade Playdough

My little Munchkin is way too young to play with playdough. I'm pretty sure he would just sit there and eat bits of it until the whole thing was gone. Just like he tried to eat the leaves outside today. 

So I'm not making the playdough for him. 

But, I do have a nephew who turns two tomorrow, and his mommy is certain that he can play with big boy things like playdough. So, since I am such a procrastinator an awesome aunt, I decided to make some for his birthday. 

I waited until the Munchkin was asleep so I wouldn't have any interruptions. I'm not much of a chemist, and didn't want to take any chances with the recipe failing due to lack of diligence. 

There are many recipes out there, but I followed one from here.

Super Soft Homemade Playdough

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

food coloring of choice

Measuring everything out is the hard part. Here's the easy part - dump everything into a saucepan. Stir well to get rid of flour lumps and evenly distribute the food coloring. 

Turn heat to medium, and stir constantly. The dough will start to clump up and stick to the soon. Once it forms a large ball, remove from heat and place dough on wax paper to cool. 

After a few minutes, knead the dough to eliminate any remaining lumps. When the dough is fully cooled, store it in plastic bags or containers. I have tons of baby food containers on hand, so I stored mine in these:

One recipe made enough for three containers, plus a little bit left over. To make several colors, cut the recipe in half or pour portions of it into separate sauce pans and then add the food coloring.

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Since I ended up with 7 containers (half green, half blue) I have plenty of playdough to send to the birthday boy and some to keep. It really is a great stress reliever to sit and knead it with your hands. :)