While I quite like the super simple no-fuss chocolate play dough we made on vacation with an empty pantry, it just isn’t quite as lovely as our usual play doughs, and that’s simply not right when you love play dough as much as we do. ☺ So today, during quiet play time, I set off to re-vamp our recipe and create a super soft and squishy chocolate play dough that was every bit as good as all of our other doughs… And I’m happy to report that I succeeded! Here’s the recipe…
One of the things I do for the Crafty Kids class i teach here in Kuwait is prepare some open-ended materials for the children to explore and create with after they’re done their main project for the day. Since this week’s theme Bright Minds was ‘bedtime’, I decided to prepare what I originally called ’sleepy time starry sky play dough’. My crafty kids loved it and it continued to bring all sorts of fun throughout the afternoon once we were home. It was a big hit again today, and Miss G actually chose it as one of the activities to have out during our weekly play date with her little buddy from downstairs.
Gracen’s been loving the tiny build a snowman play dough kit we brought with us so much this trip that I decided it was time to make a full batch for her to enjoy during our downtime at the apartment. I gave her some options, and she decided that chocolate play dough was the way to go. {Mmm… A girl after my own heart!} The only challenge while on vacation, of course, is not having a fully-stocked kitchen. Based on our favourite ever no-cook play dough recipe, I popped some ingredients onto our grocery list and hoped for the best. Relying on my limited French to read the German labels at our local market, I searched the aisles for cream of tartar and glycerine without any luck. I’m sure I could have gone elsewhere and eventually found what I was looking for, but I thought to myself, why? Back in the old days when I was babysitting or nannying at least 5 days a week, I relied solely on one from-memory play dough recipe {quite possibly the simplest recipe ever}, which consisted of three ingredients – flour, salt, and water. That’s it. And while it didn’t yield the stretchiest, softest, shiniest, last-for-at-least-6-months sort of dough, it was fun to play with and the kids loved it nonetheless. So back to the basics it was. And you know what? Our super simple no-cook chocolate play dough turned out great! In the words of Grae, it’s ‘so SO soft’ and ‘smells DE-licious!’
{this post contains affiliate links}There’s no doubt we’re a little play dough obsessed around here… We use it to practice cutting skills, we gift it to our friends, we open pretend play shops with it, and apparently we create shoes out of it too! ☺
Cloud dough is an old favourite of ours. We started experimenting with it when Miss G was about 19 months old and she’s loved it ever since. If you’ve not played with it before, you must. It’s soft and silky and powdery, but mouldable at the same time, which is loads of fun. Pair it with some scoops, spoons, and small containers, and you’ll have some very happy kiddos.
Oobleck, goop, goo, cornstarch paste… Whatever you call it, we’re huge fans! The cornstarch and water mixture has been a staple in our play repertoire for a long time now and it never fails to captivate those who dare to dig their hands in. With Halloween having just come and gone, we’ve played with it a ton lately. Sometimes paired with creepy crawlies, sometimes with giant googly eyes, and other times all on its own. It’s been loads of fun for Miss G and her little friends in the courtyard, so today we decided to try something different… Colourful SCENTED oobleck!
This week, Miss G and I are participating in a candy play series with several other mamas and munchkins from around the world… Yesterday’s theme was painting – check out our glossy Skittles paint here.
It’s no secret that we absolutely love homemade play dough around here… In fact, we usually have 2 or 3 batches on the go at once, and most often, we pull at least a batch out a day. It’s hard to choose a favourite, but out of all our go-to recipes, I think the marshmallow dough we made this summer was one of the most enjoyed. So when I stumbled upon this recipe for homemade candy corn, it got me thinking… Would the dough be similar? How much of a ‘play window’ would it allow for before it started hardening? Would it easily mould? Well, there’s only one way to find out, now isn’t there?
Halloween is quickly approaching, which as a mama of a sugar-free kid, means it’s time to get extra creative. Creative with the goodies we make to hand out to trick-or-treaters, creative with the candy alternatives we have for Miss G, and creative with the mass amounts of treats she’ll inevitably come home with after Halloween night here at The Dunes.
So while we’re still not ready to let Miss G chow down on the sugary sweets she brings home from candy collecting with her little friends, we are more than happy to help her put it to use with art projects, learning activities, and science experiments, and that’s just what we did a couple of days ago. Using a bag of Skittles, a couple of other things we already had on hand and some inspiration from this post, we created a thick, sticky paint that smells delicious and dries with the most beautiful glossy finish.
One day, while playing with our well-loved pumpkin spice play dough, Gracen asked if we could have some friends over so she could share her new dough with them. She’s always adored having friends come over, and now that we’re in an apartment building filled with teaching families, arranging play dates is easier than ever. A play dough play date sounded like a brilliant plan to me, so I agreed and immediately started thinking about another fall-scented play dough we could create. I quickly remembered the apple play dough post I’d seen on Fantastic Fun & Learning, and knew that Miss G and her friends would enjoy something similar. Because I was on a bit of a roll with the dough containing real pumpkin, I decided our apple dough would contain real apples and would be further fall-ified by making it apple pie scented. The good news is that my mission was a total success! The dough turned out soft, squishy, and smelled deliciously of warm apple pie drizzled with caramel sauce – yum! In fact, as I was making it, Brad came into the kitchen with eager eyes and asked what I was baking because our house smelled so delicious. Oops.
I adore fall. The colours, the crisp air, the scarves, the boots, the crunch of leaves underneath your feet… It all just makes me warm and fuzzy inside. My social media feeds have been full of it recently, and for that I’m thankful (because hey – I’ll take it however I can get it). While we may be in the desert and it may still be 40 to 45 degrees on an average day, there’s no reason why we can’t make fall happen right here in our own apartment. And so we began today.
Is it crazy that I’m totally stoked on this awesome, non-crumbly, and fully edible peanut butter play dough we came up with today?! The truth is, it’s taken us a few attempts to come up with the perfect recipe. I really should have known which ingredient would be the key to our success – it’s a long time favourite of mine – but it took us a while to get there. We started with the classic recipe I grew up with – peanut butter, dried milk, and honey – and while it’s yummy and fun to play with, it crumbles absolutely everywhere and is super tricky to roll out and cut using cookie cutters. This one, on the other hand, is like pure luxury. It’s super soft, silky, and rolls and cuts with ease.
While Gracen napped this afternoon, I decided to finally put the bag of marshmallows I’ve been carting around for the last couple of weeks to good use. And oh my word, am I ever glad I did!
Have you every come home from a shopping trip with surprise item in your bags? That’s exactly what happened with this hair gel… I do not use hair gel. Brad does not use hair gel. No one in our house uses hair gel. Yet after returning home from a grocery shopping trip with Miss G a few weeks ago, there it was in one of our bags. My immediate thought was, ‘Crap! Did we accidentally steal this?!’ I checked the bill and nope, we’d paid for it. How it got through the checkout and into our bags, I have no idea.
Anyways, knowing that we wouldn’t be using it in our hair anytime soon, I decided we’d use it for some sort of play. And when nothing brilliant had come to mind in a few week’s time, I decided that we’d mix it with cornstarch. Because cornstarch mixed with any sort of liquid = cool, right?
It took some serious mixing to bring the ingredients together first, then it took some serious kneading to smooth it out and soften it up. The result, however, was quite lovely. Pillowy soft and lightweight, this dough behaves a lot like ooblek does. When handled gently and moved slowly, it’s stretchy and elastic, and when handled more abruptly, it breaks off in chunks.
Gracen wanted to play with it immediately, so together we collected some bowls, silicon moulds, and plastic utensils and brought everything outside to play with.
She began exploring her new dough by sinking her hands into it, squishing it between her fingers, and poking holes into it…
Then it was time to fill all of the containers with “oatmeal”.
With a good breakfast in our tummies, it was time for dessert. ☺ The dough rolls into balls really nicely, so Miss G turned our ball collection into cupcakes with cherries on top.
When we were done with our first round of dessert, Gracen shouted, “Cookies next!” and took off into the house running. She returned with a tray of creative table goodies – buttons, pony beads, straw pieces, gems, and sparkly pompoms. I was put in charge of forming the cookies and she was in charge of decorating.
To show that we had eaten the cookies all up, Miss G crumbled them all into a bowl.
The cool part was that as soon as she was done, the crumbles had already started melting together to form one mass.
This was such a fun new dough to explore and play with. One thing we did notice is that after being played with for an hour, it had dried quite a bit. It definitely can be played with again, but this is not the type of dough you’ll want to leave out for very long when not in use.
Oobleck Dough
Mix the wet ingredients together. Add in the cornstarch and mix really well. Once the dough comes together in a mass, knead until smooth and soft.
Play!
♥
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Gracen and I may have just stumbled upon the best. play dough. recipe. ever. today while combining my old go-to with a few other ideas we found around the net…. Now I know I said similar things about this recipe, but this new one involves no cooking (win!) and smells delish (double win!)
We did have to make a trip to the grocery store beforehand, as a couple of the ingredients are not things we regularly keep on hand, but it was well worth the trip. This is by far the softest, squishiest, smoothest, nicest feeling {and smelling} play dough I’ve ever come across.
Now before I share the recipe, I want to say that there are LOTS of factors at play when making play dough at home. It seems like it should be a simple enough task {and I promise that it is}, but there a few things to consider and I want to be sure that your play dough turns out well. Believe it or not, things like the elevation at which you live, the weather / humidity where you are, and how you measure your flour can all affect whether your dough turns out too sticky, too dry, or just right.
For the purpose of this recipe, know that I measure flour by scooping a heaping amount of flour into my stainless steel measuring up and pressing it down into the cup on the inside of the bag. Thus, my flour is fairly packed down in the measuring cup.
Also know that if your finished play dough turns out too wet, you can save it by adding a little bit of extra flour, bit by bit (just go slow here – you can overdo it quickly!) and kneading it in. At the opposite side of the spectrum, if your dough seems too dry or tough, you can add moisture and soften it up by adding tiny bits of one of the wet ingredients (boiling water, oil, or glycerine) at a time, again being careful not to overdo it.
The BEST Scented No-Cook Play Dough
*If using Kool-Aid or Frosting Creations, additional food colouring is not needed. You can also skip Kool-Aid / Frosting Creations all together and use the gel colouring for a coloured but unscented dough. Or leave out all three for a unscented, natural coloured dough.
Place all of the ingredients, save the boiling water, in a bowl and whisk well. Measure the water using your dry measuring set and add it to the bowl. Give the mixture a quick mix with a wooden spoon, banging off it off every once and a while. At this point, the mixture may seem too wet and sticky to make good play dough… Do not fret! Leave the semi-mixed dough on the counter to cool for 5 or so minutes. Afterwards, dump the mixture out onto the countertop and knead really well. You’ll know you’re done when the dough is fully cooled, soft and squishy, and the super smooth.
Enjoy!
FIY: Kool-Aid is a powdered drink mix that you add sugar and water to make ‘juice’ and Frosting Creation Flavour Mix is a powder used to flavour store-bought icing. Both can be used in this recipe to scent AND colour the play dough, but they can easily be left out for a natural, unscented dough or replaced with food colouring for a coloured, but unscented dough.
FIY #2: Non-edible glycerine is readily available in the first aid section of most grocery stores and edible glycerine is available where cake making supplies are sold.
FIY#3: This play dough will last for months if stored at room temperature in an air-tight container or bag. Do not refrigerate or store near a heat source or on top of the fridge.
FIY #4: When making this play dough, we use dry measuring cups only – even when measuring the boiling water.
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This is something I’ve been planning to make with Gracen for a long while now and I’m so glad we finally tried it today. Moon dough, often also called cloud dough, is a silky, mouldable mixture of just two ingredients many families probably already have on hand. Fun and easy – love it!
To whip up your own batch of moon dough, all you need is some white flour, some baby oil, a mixing bowl, and a whisk.
Start by adding 8 parts flour into your bowl.
Then add 1 part baby oil.
Mix well, ensuring all the large clumps are broken up and the oil is evenly distributed through the flour.
When you’re done, the mixture will be light and fluffy and the clumps should be minimal. That’s it – so easy! Transfer it into a large bin and add some cups, moulds, straws, spoons, and cookie cutters for your little one(s) to use while exploring.
Cloud Dough
Put the ingredients into a large bowl and mix really well. Store in an airtight container or bag for several months.
Enjoy!