Easy no-cook playdough

Kids love play dough. You can make your own play dough really easily and cheaply. This no-cook version only takes a few minutes to make and gives hours of entertainment to the kids.

You can use supermarket food colouring or food gels that are available from specialty cake shops (we used the AmeriColor brand). Only use the gels if you have them left over from kids’ party cakes. The strength of the colour when you add it to the boiling water will be the final colour of the play dough. Use colour generously for primary colours.

Total time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 1 heaped cup of plain flour
• ½ cup of table salt
• 2 tbsp of cream of tartar
• 20ml of vegetable oil
• 125ml of water (boiling)
• food colouring

Method

1. Place flour, salt and cream of tartar in a bowl and combine.
2. In a heatproof jug, combine the vegetable oil and boiling water.
3. Stir through the food colouring into the water mix. The colour should be nice and strong (the colour you want the dough to be) as it is hard to add colour to the dough later in the process.
4. Add the coloured water to the dry ingredients. Mix by hand using a rubber glove.
5. Roll out on a flat surface (a piece of baking paper will stop any dye on your bench top).
6. Wrap with plastic wrap or place in a snaplock bag until ready to use.
7. Repeat with as many colours as you wish.
8. When the kids have finished playing with it, you can store the dough in an airtight container for a few weeks in a cool spot. If storing in the refrigerator, remove from the fridge a few hours before playtime to bring back to room temperature.