My family meets with a group of friends from church every Tuesday night. We have quite the group of boisterous preschoolers to entertain each week and I volunteered to make some playdough to keep them busy. Keep in mind, I’ve never made homemade playdough.
So I struck out to the world wide web and realized quickly that not only were there a million and one recipes, I didn’t seem to have all of the ingredients necessary for any of them. I certainly didn’t have cream of tartar (although my mom does have a holiday cookies recipe that requires it so I now have it on hand). I also learned that it can be spelled: play dough, playdough, play-doh and the list goes on. I picked one and ran with it.
I found some ideas from several recipes and then took to work trying to make something with only 1/4 cup of salt (yes, I emptied all of my salt shakers to come up with this upon realized we were out). Needless to say we were off to a rocky start but I did find the perfect sized recipe for two kids (my nephew was on his way over) and then expanded it times four for a large group. I’ll include both homemade playdough versions below!
Playdough Small Batch Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 cup salt
- 3 teaspoons lemon juice*
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 cup water
- food coloring (2-3 drops or to preference)
Mix ingredients into pan and heat slowly at a low temperature until appropriate texture. Let cool. Play!
Playdough Large Batch Ingredients:
- 4 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1/4 cup lemon juice*
- 3/4 cup oil
- 2 cups water
- food coloring (4-5 drops or to preference)
Mix ingredients into pan and heat slowly at a low temperature until appropriate texture. Let cool. Play!
We also used this same recipe during our fun Mo Willems Pigeon Party!
*Several recipes said that you can replace lemon juice with vinegar
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Sandy VanHoey says
Your recipe is different than the one I make but I make it occasionally for my grandson and he loves it and it stores well. Mine doesn’t call for lemon juice but does use alum
Sarah L says
The chemistry in both lemon juice and vinegar is similar so they can be substituted for each other.
joanna garcia says
omg love this!!!! thanks for the recipe!
Teresa Herrera-Honores says
the kids love making their own stuff so this would be a great afternoon activity! THANKS!
Janet W. says
I’d love to make this for my grandsons to play with! They would have a ball!
Vickie Couturier says
that is a great ideal,,that would be nice for a birthday party an let them take their own play dough home,,thanks for sharing this
Robin O says
Cool! I’ve never made play-doh, but I would love to try these out.
Thanks for the two size options!
Jenn says
This is so cool! I’ve never thought to make my own playdough for the kids to use.
Darlene Ysaguirre says
This is amazing who knew you can make your own play dough or is it play-doh lol
Kate F. says
My niece and nephew would love making this!
ColleenMarie82 says
We love making out own playdough, so much nicer to play with then the “original” stuff. I pinned a recipe for on spice playdough. I can’t wait to try that next.
Michelle H. says
I will definitely be making this for my kids.
Shane says
Hmmm does this have the traditional play doh smell? My favorite part!
Phylicia Phillips says
Sounds amazing and much easier to get out of carpet heaven forbid my son makes a giant mess. Ill have to save this recipe thank you
Cara Daymude says
Love your Homemade playdoh tutorial someday I plan on make a beaded curtain out of playdoh thanks for posting. 🙂
Tanya Rubezhov says
Wow! That sounds very doable!
Thank you so much for sharing! Can’t wait to try!
Amanda M. says
How have I not done this before!!
Brittany F. says
I look forward to making this when my baby is old enough. Thanks for the recipe.
Rosie says
I didn’t realize it is so easy to make playdough! This is a must try! I can make some cute handmade gifts doing this!
Sarah Hayes says
I never wouldve guess vinegar or lemon juice would go in homemade playdough. this is a great idea! I will definitely be making this with my daughter one day and I know it will be soo much fun
Kaylee Lambert says
This was awesome! I didn’t have any lemon juice so I used lime juice and it worked just fine! I wanted to do something fun with the kids I babysit and this was perfect! Super easy to make and only took about 5 minutes to cook! (Make sure you stir it frequently with a rubber spatula so it doesn’t stick to the edges). Thanks so much for this super easy recipe