Cream of Tarterless Play Dough

Working with kids can be so much fun.  Mixing up the activities I use with them is so helpful to keeping them entertained and interested therapy and in skills training.  I am always looking for money-saving ways to provide a variety of activities for kids.  Clearance puzzles, games, crayons; home-made paints and play-dough; free coloring pages, word searches, and crossword puzzles; and other money-saving techniques are some examples of things I am always looking for.

Until now, I never had to provide my own play dough.  Then I found out the Play Doh at work was dried out.  It was time.  I pulled out my Pinterest to find some already-pinned recipes for play doh.  I had one I wanted to use, but while searching through my cabinets for the ingredients I discovered I was short one of the ingredients.  Curse you, cream of tarter, for never being there when I need you.  Next resort: Google, or course.  That was where I found naturalparentingtips.com.  They suggested replacing the cream of tarter with three times the amount needed of white wine vinegar or lemon juice.  So, I needed one teaspoon of cream of tarter, but I replaced it with three teaspoons of lemon juice.

Anyways, here is the recipe.

Cream of Tarterless  Play Dough

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 teaspoons lemon juice or white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• Food coloring
• Essential oil for scent (optional)

1. Mix dry ingredients in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Mix in water.
3. Mix in lemon juice.
4. Pour in the oil.
5. Continue to mix over low heat until it forms a play dough texture.
6. Remove from heat and allow to cool down a bit.
7. Knead in food coloring and a couple drops of scented oil.
8. Store in an airtight container (or, like me, in a Ziploc sandwich bag inside another sandwich bag).

After mixing in the water.

With the oil (I gave up trying to integrate ALL the oil).

I sprinkled some flour on the counter before kneading to help absorb some excess oil before adding food coloring.

Here it is completely done.  The consistency is great.  I like it better than store bought Play Doh because it is a bit softer.  It does firm up a bit after sitting a while, but maintains the awesomely soft, pliable texture.