Because I just discovered how full of bad things the pre-made stuff is and because homemade stuff is always a little bit more fun, I decided to figure out how to make play dough out of normal kitchen ingredients like, salt, flour and water. And while the kids are busy making rainbow colored ponies and donuts with sprinkles I thought I could just as well make some good use of this time to share the recipe with you:

This is how to make play dough yourself:

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

1 cup of warm water

1/2 cup of salt

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1 tablespoon of cream of tartar (optional for better elasticity) (if you’re danish and wonder what this is, you can read about here)

Food coloring

Scented oils (optional)

Mix all ingredients except for the food coloring in a saucepan and stir over low heat. The dough will begin to thicken until it will start looking like mashed potatoes. When the dough starts to clump up in the middle of the pan, or when it no longer sticks to the spoon or your finger, turn off the heat and let the dough cool down.

If the dough is still sticky just keep cooking and stirring until the dough is dry and feels like play dough.

Pour the dough out on a clean surface and knead until it becomes silky smooth. Divide the dough into small balls for coloring. Drop a tiny bit of food coloring into a divot in the dough and work the food coloring into the dough. Be aware to keep the raw dye away from your skin or the table as this will otherwise leave color. You can work the food coloring into the dough while the dough is in a plastic bag, if you want to make sure the color doesn’t stain anything it’s not supposed to. Only the concentrated color will color your skin or the table, so as soon as it is worked into the dough, it will be fine.

To keep the play dough from drying out, keep it in an air tight container or a zip-lock bag.

Make sure the dough is completely cold before storing it.

If you want to make hard dough figures or ornaments for Halloween or Christmas, you can even bake the play dough in the oven.

Play hard!