Soft Homemade Playdough Recipe with Cream of Tartar

Here at gunamuna, we pride ourselves on being safe sleep experts - and one of the things we know will help everyone in your house sleep better at night is plenty of play during the day!

One of our favorite activities during these colder nights here in New England is making homemade playdough with cream of tartar. Not only is the end result of this recipe a fun one, it's easy enough to get your little ones involved in the recipe - picking the food coloring or helping to knead once it's cooled. This is a super easy, fast, and foolproof recipe - happy playing!

Homemade Playdough Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1/3 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• Gel food coloring

Directions

1. In a saucepan, add 1 cup of flour, 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar, and 1/3 cup of salt [the salt acts as a preservative and keeps the dough from being sticky!]
2. Add 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
3. Turn heat on medium/low and stir. It will be lumpy at first, but keep stirring!
4. Before it starts getting thick (make sure you’re watching because this happens fast), add whatever food coloring you want into the dough. Add the color and stir.
5. Keep stirring, it is going to start thickening up which could take anywhere from 30 seconds-2 minutes depending on how hot your pan/stove is.
6. Now you can see it’s getting thicker, keep stirring, and keep scraping the bottom of the pot.
7. Keep stirring and scraping the bottom
8. Once you notice the dough isn’t wet anymore, remove it from the pot.
9. Put the dough on some wax paper and allow to cool for about 30 minutes or so.  Once cooled, take the ball in your hands and knead for about a minute. Store in the fridge, in a zip-lock bag or airtight container.
10. Your dough shouldn’t dry out, but if it starts to, add a few drops of water and knead that into the dough. If the smell of it isn’t your thing, add in a few drops of lavender essential oil - or any other you prefer!