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Playdough recipe to make in the microwave. Don’t be tempted to leave out the cream of tartar, you need it to stop the dough going off.

Ingredients

2 Cups plain flour
2 Cups water
1 Cup salt
2 Tablespoons Cream of Tartar
2 Tablespoons oil (not nut oil or olive oil)
Food colouring

Playdough recipe method

Put all the dry ingredients in a large microwavable bowl
Add oil
Add your food colouring to the cold water and mix till dissolved
Add the now coloured water to the mix and stir well
Microwave on high in two minute bursts – stir well after each two minutes.

Your playdough is ready when everything has come together to form a dough. Watch it closely as you cook it in the microwave and reduce the two minutes to one if necessary. Once out of the microwave kneed it for a minute or two – be careful as it will be hot!

Once cool wrap in cling film or put in a plastic container and store in a cool place.

Some ideas of what to do with playdough

Use toddler friendly cookie cutters to make shapes

Make multiple colours at once.

Use playdough in an Easter Garden. Take a look at this post all about Easter with toddlers.

I love playdough, especially the homemade variety. It’s relatively cheap and lasts a long time and gives hours of fun and creativity.

You can make characters from Bible stories with it, add it to laminated print outs, make shapes – anything. It’s great for young children to practice their fine motor skills and exercise their hand muscles ready for writing and drawing. It’s also good for keeping children focused on a sustained activity – they often willingly concentrate on playdough for quite a while.

The above playdough is a no cook recipe – it uses boiling water so has to be made by an adult.

Recipe

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

1 teaspoon cream of tarter

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (don’t use a nut oil in case children are allergic)

3/4 cup boiling water

Food colouring paste or ready mix water colour paint for colour

To make add all the dry ingredients to a mixer and then add the oil, boiling water and colouring and mix till a soft dough.

I tripled this amount to make the different colours in the picture.

I added some vanilla extract but I’m not sure it’s worth it – I think you would have to add a lot to really notice a vanilla scent and that would be quite expensive.

I had a play with the dough – a simple tree laminated – here’s a free tree PDF Tree I made an autumnal tree and an apple tree.