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
April 19, 2013 at 2:32 pmYour 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
April 19, 2013 at 7:41 pmThe chemistry in both lemon juice and vinegar is similar so they can be substituted for each other.
joanna garcia says
April 20, 2013 at 5:22 amomg love this!!!! thanks for the recipe!
Teresa Herrera-Honores says
April 20, 2013 at 6:11 amthe kids love making their own stuff so this would be a great afternoon activity! THANKS!
Janet W. says
April 20, 2013 at 6:13 amI’d love to make this for my grandsons to play with! They would have a ball!
Vickie Couturier says
April 20, 2013 at 8:10 amthat 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
April 20, 2013 at 8:31 amCool! I’ve never made play-doh, but I would love to try these out.
Thanks for the two size options!
Jenn says
April 20, 2013 at 9:10 amThis is so cool! I’ve never thought to make my own playdough for the kids to use.
Darlene Ysaguirre says
April 21, 2013 at 10:10 pmThis is amazing who knew you can make your own play dough or is it play-doh lol
Kate F. says
April 21, 2013 at 10:22 pmMy niece and nephew would love making this!
ColleenMarie82 says
April 23, 2013 at 11:50 amWe 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
May 16, 2013 at 7:18 pmI will definitely be making this for my kids.
Shane says
June 26, 2013 at 5:40 pmHmmm does this have the traditional play doh smell? My favorite part!
Phylicia Phillips says
July 1, 2013 at 10:57 amSounds 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
July 26, 2013 at 11:08 amLove your Homemade playdoh tutorial someday I plan on make a beaded curtain out of playdoh thanks for posting. 🙂
Tanya Rubezhov says
August 5, 2013 at 2:41 pmWow! That sounds very doable!
Thank you so much for sharing! Can’t wait to try!
Amanda M. says
August 8, 2013 at 4:16 pmHow have I not done this before!!
Brittany F. says
August 16, 2013 at 9:27 amI look forward to making this when my baby is old enough. Thanks for the recipe.
Rosie says
November 5, 2013 at 2:58 pmI 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
January 16, 2014 at 12:47 amI 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