{AMAZING} Ice Cream Dough

Ice Cream Dough

This afternoon Gracen and I tried out a new sensory material originally created by Jessie of Play Create Explore (if you’re a parent and haven’t checked out her blog before, you definitely should – she’s got hundreds of sensory play ideas, fun bath ideas, and tons more) and it was AWESOME.

IMG 5062

The ingredients seem a little strange, but they work perfectly together to create a hard ice cream-looking texture.  The main two ingredients are cornstarch and conditioner – yes, hair conditioner – the cheapest variety you can find.   The other stuff is just food colouring and cheap imitation extracts to make it look and smell more like real ice cream.

IMG 5063

We decided on making 3 ‘flavours’ (coconut, strawberry, and hazelnut), Gracen started us off by putting an equal amount of conditioner in 3 bowls.

IMG 5065

Then she added our food colouring – none for coconut, red for strawberry, and a combination of red, green, and yellow for the hazelnut.

IMG 5067

Then she added a generous pour of extract into each of the bowls…

IMG 5068

And mixed them up.

IMG 5069

One thing I will say is that we should have spend a little more time looking for an unscented {or at least a very lightly scented} conditioner.  At $1.28, the price was certainly right, but the strong ‘fresh’ scent gave our imitation extracts a serious run for their money.  Even something food scented would have been better…  Next time we’ll look for something of the strawberry / coconut / mango variety.

IMG 5070

Next up was the messy part…  Mixing the cornstarch into the conditioner mixture.

IMG 5078

After gently folding and blending the cornstarch and conditioner together, this was the end result.

IMG 5080

Isn’t it crazy how much it looks like REAL hard ice cream?!

IMG 5081

Here’s a close up view.

IMG 5098

And as long as it’s handled like hard ice cream usually is (not rolled or smoothed over too much – thanks for the tip, Jessie!), it scoops perfectly – just as ice cream does. ☺

 

We followed Play Create Explore‘s ratios exactly, so please visit the original post here.  The amounts we used for these batches, along with details on the colouring and extracts are as follows:

Coconut Ice Cream Dough

  • 1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
  • 1 cup of cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon of imitation coconut extract

 

Strawberry Ice Cream Dough

  • 1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
  • 1 cup of cornstarch
  • 6 drops of red food colouring
  • 1 tablespoon of imitation strawberry extract

 

Hazelnut Ice Cream Dough

  • 1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
  • 1 cup of cornstarch
  • 4 drops of red food colouring
  • 4 drops of green food colouring
  • 12 drops of yellow food colouring
  • 1 tablespoon of imitation hazelnut extract

 

Enjoy!

 

See how we put our ice cream dough to use in our pretend play ice cream shop.

Are you following us on Facebook and Instagram yet?

We’d love to have you!

4 thoughts on “{AMAZING} Ice Cream Dough

      1. I made it tonight. It was realistic and I know the kids in my class will love playing with it. How long does it keep? I put mine in the refrigerator. Hope it makes it 5 days! :)

        Thank you for sharing. My 9 year old and I had a blast making it!

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.