Super Simple Playdough

Happy Valentine’s Day!!  If you’re like me, this day has snuck up quickly – quicker than usual, it seems.  And somehow I recently realized that I haven’t made any play dough since Christmas.  Yeah.  We go in phases of play around here, and we’ve been out of a play dough mode for a while.  But, Becca’s been asking for some, so I thought I’d make her a wonderful surprise and make glitter play dough!  So, I looked online at a million different recipes and decided that I guess I’m just lazy.  Or maybe I’m stuck in a rut.  But whatever it is, I’m just not willing to try a new play dough recipe.  I like mine, and I’m stickin’ to it!

Maybe you’ve been looking for an EASY recipe, too.  So many of them require the stove or an electric skillet.  And honestly, this was the first time I made my recipe without the electric skillet, and I felt so silly that I had ever used it in the first place!!  Here’s what you need to do to make my Super Simple Playdough.

In a bowl, mix together 1 cup of flour, a little less than 1/2 cup table salt, 2 tsp cream of tartar, three packages of your favorite Koolaid for vibrant color (I used cherry for this to make it red.  Fyi though, if you do grape wanting to make purple, only use one pack b/c three comes out almost black), and then if you want, stir in some glitter, too.

In a larger mixing bowl, heat 1 1/4 cups water and 1 overflowing Tbsp of vegetable oil.  Make sure it’s boiling when you pull it out – I heated mine for 3 minutes.  Dump in your dry ingredients and stir well.  You’ll have a sticky mass in your bowl.  Let it cool for about an hour.  Then it’s ready to be played with!  No adding extra flour or any stovetop mess!  Super simple.

Store it in an airtight container, and it’ll be great for play for a couple of weeks.  After that point, you’ll need to add flour if you want it to not be sticky… or just throw it away and make a new color/scent!

So if this Valentine’s Day you need something fun to occupy the troops… pull out a few packs of cherry Koolaid and make some play dough! 🙂

NOTE: If you don’t have any Koolaid on hand, food coloring works just as well – add it to the boiling water.  You can add a drop of essential oil to the water for a scent if you’d like.  If you have a child who is eager to dive in and doesn’t mind the CAUTION – HOT! dough, you can throw a little flour on the counter and let them go ahead and dive in to kneading the dough as soon as it is mixed!