Quick, Fuss-free Play Dough

Play dough, is universally loved and provides amazing sensory feedback for children, as well as providing endless playful learning opportunities. 

But if like us, you don't really like the idea of children playing with a synthetic dough (particularly if they are prone to tasting), nor do you fancy forking out for endless pots of commercial dough, you'll love this quick, fuss-free play dough recipe that we use. 

1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup table salt
1 TBSP cream of tartar
1 TBSP of vegetable oil (melted coconut oil works too)
1/4 cup of boiling water
Food colouring* 

Put all of your dry ingredients in a large bowl, add the oil. Depending on what type of colouring you are using, you might want to add it now, or you can dissolve the colour in a little bit of the boiling water. 

Next slowly add the boiling water, mixing as you go, until to get to the desired consistency. Remember as it's a warm dough it will be a little bit more sticky initially, but this will change quickly as the dough cools. Knead the dough for a few minutes on a cool surface before adding extra flour or you could end up with a dry, crumbly dough. 

If you do need to add any extra flour, lightly sprinkle some into the bowl or on the surface you are working on.  Then work the dough over the flour, incorporating it in slowly. 

Store your dough in the fridge, in an air tight container. 

The dough should last approximately 3-4wks. 

*We use often use KoolAid sachets, which give the dough the most amazing smell & great colours too. But we also use plain liquid or gel food colours, which you can find in all large supermarkets. You might just need to adjust the water:flour balance depending on what colouring you chose to use. 

We get our KoolAid sachets on Amazon, we've linked some in our favourites list.  Don't be temped by the large tubs, they continue sugar which makes for a very sticky mess & an unusable dough.