The SEN Resources Blog

How do you make good, home made, Playdough? What ingredients do you need? Do I have to bake the Playdough in the Oven? And what on earth is Cream of Tartar? 

…these were just a few of the questions I found myself googling last night when I was asked (by my 3 year old) to make some play dough from scratch! 

After googling and experimenting with some ingredients..whilst I’m still not entirely sure what Cream of Tartar is… I’m proud to say I can now answer the other questions… 

So here’s my tried and thoroughly tested recipe for home made play dough 

Ingredients:

• 30g Salt
• 60g Plain Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Warm Water*
• Food colouring*
• 1 Teaspoon Vegetable Oil
• 1 Teaspoon of Cream of Tartar

* We found that key to getting the right consistency was the amount of water and food colouring added. We’d recommend starting with two tablespoons of water and then once you’ve added the food colouring decide if you need more. If you decide to make a really deep red Play dough for example, you’ll need more food colouring and in turn not much more than 2 tablespoons of water. Whereas if you want a paler shade, you may only need a drop of food colouring and therefore more like 4 tablespoons of water. 

Do I need Cream of Tartar? 

I did use Cream of Tartar, but rumour is that its not entirely necessary to make the play dough.. but does enables you to keep the Play dough for a few months. As I made it today…I can’t comment on how long it keeps. 



How to Make: 

We wanted to make it with the kids, so although I’ve read some methods where you use a pan, we didn’t. Instead this is how we made it

1. Weighed out all the ingredients

2. Put all the dry ingredients plus oil into a bowl and stirred in the warm water. 

3. Added the food colouring and kneaded the dough to evenly mix in the colour, adding more water/flour to get the right consistency. (This bits a bit messy and your hands/table/clothes might get stained by the food colouring)

4.Played!

 How to Keep:

Airtight container or zip lock bag. 

Where can I buy the proper stuff..

Here’s a link to Playdoh on Amazon:

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