Make Your Own Play Dough

When we were children growing up in a farming community, our parents were pretty self-sufficient. I don’t know whether children’s commercial play dough was available but we never saw any. Instead, my mother made homemade play dough with flour and salt. There are still advantages to making your own: It’s inexpensive, you can make it in larger quantities for Johnny’s party, and Johnny can help make his own play dough. When you make your own, Johnny has a sense of self-sufficiency and you demonstrate that everything fun does not have to come from the store. Besides, you know what is in this play dough and when it ends up in a kiddy’s mouth, there’s no reason to be concerned—everything is edible.

The following recipe is a big batch recipe. It is intended to be enough for a party or group of kids and makes about ten cups of play dough—the equivalent of twelve commercial Play Doh ® containers. If you want a smaller batch, divide the recipe in half. If you are having a really big party and want more play dough, make two batches--this recipe is about all that can be made in a stand-type mixer at one time. You can also make this play dough by hand.

If you want multiple colors, divide the dough and knead in the food coloring after the dough is made. If one color is sufficient, add the food coloring with the water and save the step of kneading in the coloring.

7-8 cups all-purpose or bread flour
3 cups salt
3 tablespoons cream of tartar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 cups hot water
food coloring

Mix seven cups of flour together with the salt and cream of tartar in the bowl of your stand-type mixer. Add the oil and water and knead with a dough hook in your electric stand-type mixer for five to six minutes. (If you are kneading by hand, knead for eight to ten minutes.) Add more flour to get a soft, workable dough.

Store the dough in a sealed container to keep it from becoming dry. If it becomes too dry, place it back in the mixer bowl and knead in a dribble of water.