Saturday 12 December 2015

The Best Play Dough Recipe Ever - IMHO!


Four years ago I came across this amazing blog & their recipe for outdoor play dough on this blog: Exploring the Outdoor Classroom & I just had to try it. We had had terrible trouble making our play dough last in our new school as the underfloor heating seemed to make it dry up after a few days & become too crumbly to use. Usually it would last a month but we found ourselves having to throw it out at the end of each week & were constantly making new batches. I have of course since discovered that our damp climate does not lend itself to having play dough outdoors - it just goes all sticky so this outdoor recipe has become our staple indoor dough recipe with some adaptations.


Each month we make new play dough, using the a colour we want to reinforce or a particular scent etc. and so far four years on, this is still working for us, best of all we can set the play dough out first thing and it is still soft and ready for use when we come inside to play after 45 minutes. And even after a month when we make a new batch, we can pass the old one to another class in the school and it's good for at least another month or so.

The original outdoor recipe is much too 'wet' so we have combined our indoor and the outdoor recipes to make the perfect, soft, pliable dough.
This month we added cinnamon & All Spice to make gingerbread play dough - the smell is heavenly and the children have enjoyed making gingerbread men & stars and buns with little coloured discs as buttons or decorations. 



10 comments:

  1. Do you know any substitute for cream of tartar?
    Thank you and congratulations for the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this, for a few reasons, one the photos are lovely, two, this is like a recipe our assistant director always liked, and it had the same name, and so I love that we live in a small world, and three, I also have used plastic bright coloured gems for my children to use as "candies" for their baking creations, too. It is indeed a small world! Do your children also like to transfer their creations to a desk, or shelf to "bake"? In response to the above commetn, I wonder if alum might be a good substitute for cream of tartar?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Brenda, that is such a coincidence! And yes, they love to move it around to cook or turn the plastic containers upside down to create an oven! Honestly have no idea for a substitute.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I can't wait to try your recipe! What is the difference between the Playdough 1 and Playdough 2 recipes?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One has more oil less salt & vice versa.

      Delete
  7. Sorry, I should have been more clear. I want to try the recipe that is referred to in the post, that stays so soft, and would like to know if it is the Playdough 1 or Playdough 2 recipe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Terri, you make both & combine them until they are pliable & less sticky. Just don't add too much extra flour at this stage or it will dry out over time.

      Delete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.