My daughter LOVES playing with play dough so naturally we’ve gone through quite a bit of dough over the last year. While our usual go-to’s are natural, preservative-free Eco-Kids Dough and Green Toys Dough, one afternoon we were feeling “crafty” and decided to make our own! Not only was it super easy and fun, but in a little over 5 minutes later we had soft, flexible play dough!
INGREDIENTS*:
- 1 Cup of Flour
- 1 Cup of Lukewarm Water
- 1 TBS of Coconut Oil (or Olive Oil will work too)
- 6 TBS of Salt
- 2 TSP Cream of Tartar (this makes the dough soft!)
- Optional: Food Coloring – we used India Tree Natural Vegetable Based Decorating Color (no corn syrup or synthetic dyes and preservative free!)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Mix all of the ingredients into a pot. On medium heat, stir until a thicker consistency forms – it will basically LOOK like play dough. Place on a glass plate or parchment paper to cool. Then, add food coloring. Enjoy!
P.S. I used our old Eco-Kids Dough containers for storage (eco-friendly upcycling!), but a re-usable air tight bag or container will work great too!
Why purchase (or make) alternatives to the well-known “Play-Doh” brand? Isn’t it “non-toxic” as advertised?
According to the Play-Doh website, the exact ingredients are proprietary (or what is also called, a “trade secret”). They do mention the main ingredients are water, salt, and flour and the compound does contain wheat. A 2004 patent revealed, that Play-Doh also contains a retrogradation inhibitor, mineral oil, a surfactant, preservatives, a hardener, a humectant, fragrance, coloring, a petroleum additive and borax. In my opinion, since we know kids are curious and love to put things in their mouths, these are not exactly “non-toxic” ingredients that I would be OK with my child ingesting. #FoodForThought
*All organic ingredients were used in this recipe.
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