This DIY recipe for soft homemade play dough makes fantastic play dough that my daughter says is better than store bought. Discover how to make your own play dough and save money!
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As a toy, play dough provides fantastic fine motor and sensory fun.
Unfortunately, kids like to mix play dough colors and it gets left out, dried up, and downright dirty.
We took a little break from homemade play dough until my daughter recently got a Play Doh kitchen set that encourages you to mix colors. So I went to Costco and got a huge bag of flour for less than a large pack of Play Doh. Now I don't care if she mixes the colors!
Benefits of playing with play dough
Play dough is a wonderful toy and teaching tool. In fact, a study conducted by Temple University found that classic, basic toys like blocks and clay are more beneficial for development than electronic "educational" toys!
Playing with play dough has many benefits including:
- Improves fine motor skills
- Strengthens hand and wrist muscles
- Improves hand-eye coordination
- Improves pre-writing skills
- Encourages creativity and imagination
Homemade play-doh recipe
There are a zillion play dough recipes available online, but I believe this one is the best because it lasts forever. The green play dough shown in the photos above lasted for about two years!
This is a cooked play dough recipe that contains cream of tartar. I've never had any mold problems. Cooking also removes any risk from playing with raw flour.
This batch size large enough for plenty of fun but small enough to fit in a single quart sized ziplock bag.
Cooked play-doh ingredients:
- 1 cup of water
- Food coloring - I use gel food coloring
- 1 cup of flour
- 1.5 teaspoons of oil (I've used vegetable oil and avocado oil. Both work.)
- .5 teaspoons of cream of tartar
- .5 cup of salt
You will also need a cooking pot and a sturdy spoon. A small bowl and a whisk are optional, but helpful.
Cream of tartar is important to this recipe as a preservative and is part of why this play dough lasts so long. It's cheap and easy to find in most grocery store baking/spice aisles.
Bonus: baking powder is baking soda with cream of tartar so you can mix up your own baking powder the next time you need it for a recipe!
Cooked play-doh recipe
- Stir together flour, cream of tartar, salt, and oil in a bowl
- Add water and 10 drops of food coloring to a cooking pot
- Whisk flour mixture into water
- Add more food coloring, if desired
- Cook over medium-high heat and stir with a wood spoon or sturdy plastic spoon. Use a mixing spoon, not a serving spoon, whisk, or spatula. They are too flimsy.
- Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the mixture becomes thicker and play dough-y. It will continue to harden as it cools, so remove from the stove when it's still a bit softer than what you want.
- Allow play dough to cool fully before allowing your child to play with it. It will be HOT!
- Store in an air tight container, like a ziplock bag, once it's fully cooled
One the play dough is completely cool, you're ready to play! Make sure it is all the way cool before sealing your zip top bag or you'll get condensation.
Watch the video clip below for a quick demonstration of how nice and soft this play dough can be and see it in action with these abc mats:
Free printable play dough mats
Now that you have nice, soft play dough, you'll need some play dough printables! Be sure to check out the free play dough mat printables below:
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