Kids Recipes Are Not Always For Eating

When you think of kids recipes, you think of jam tarts, cookies, chopped bananas and instant dessert mixes. But have you thought about getting your kids in the kitchen to rustle up a batch of play dough?

Children are curious by nature, so if you tell them that you are going to make something in the kitchen using food ingredients, but you will not be eating it, they will wonder what it could possibly be.

Making your own play dough is simple and very inexpensive to do, so why not spend some quality time with your kids weighing and mixing up the ingredients, choosing the food colourings, then creating endless creatures and characters from the resulting dough.

Here is my recipe for home made play dough:

1 cup of plain flour
1 cup of boiling water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
half a cup of table salt
food colouring of your choice

Put all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon. Add the vegetable oil, and a few drops of food colouring if you are using it, then pour in the boiling water and mix until all the ingredients are combined to make a thick dough.

Let the dough cool down before playing with it. You can add a bit of sparkle to your dough by adding a few shakes of glitter to the cooled mixture and knead it in.

Home made play dough can be kept in an airtight container, or use an empty ice cream tub if you have one spare.

All play dough goes off eventually whether it is home made or shop purchased, so it is far more cost-effective to make your own at home, plus it is fun for the kids to get involved too. Think of it as an extra science project!

If you liked my home made play dough you will love finding out how to make goop, paper mache, colourful rice, junk models and more!

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Michelle Newbold, Joint Editor
Cotswold Family Life
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