Silky Smooth Dough

Sometimes plain playdough can get boring....mix it up a bit!!! This recipe is for silky smooth playdough

Mix 3/4 cup of conditioner to 1 and 1/2 cups of cornflour and mix with a spoon until blended. take into your hands and knead until smooth adding more conditioner or cornflour as needed-will depend on the room temperature.

The right consistency will be smooth yet break in half if pulled apart. Add food colouring last if required. Just a few drops in the center of dough and knead till evenly tinted.

Coloured cloud dough

                                                          Coloured Cloud Dough!

This dough is fluffy and light and lots of fun. I had made it with Tara a few years ago but this time we added colour!

Recipe is: 4 cups of flour

1/2 cup of baby oil

finely grated chalk pastels

We used a kitchen grater on the finer side to firstly shave our chalk into separate containers first. Then we made a big batch of the flour/oil mix and added the colours after just mixing with a spoon till combined.

Consistency should be crumbly but hold when compacted.

Please be aware baby oil is toxic if eaten so this activity must be supervised at all times.Sandpit moulds, bento moulds and ice cream scoops work well with this dough



Glitter Dough

"Would you like to make play dough today?" ......"Yes, please! Can it be lilac and sparkly?".....
Not the answer i thought i would get but i shouldn't be surprised this little fairy loves anything girly.
Tara made her average play dough recipe then added a slight purple colour and some purple glitter. It looked quite pretty in the end. I forgot to get another photo but there were plenty of stars, wands and butterflies made.

Glow dough

We loved our glow water so much we thought why not try making some playdough with it. Using 1 cup of cornflour and 2 cups of water i mixed it and placed in the microwave for 3 minutes. It became a hard thick layer of dough. I added a touch more glow water and kneaded it until it formed a ball.
Such a simple recipe, no stove top needed and i was really happy with the outcome. Easy to mould and soft enough for little hands

Tara got to work making some glow stars for halloween

Homemade Rusks for Baby

I think getting older siblings hands on and involved in helping with their new little brother or sister is the key to a happy household. Mason is cutting his first teeth right now so Tara made some homemade teething rusks for him to chew on.
If you would like the recipe we used it was very simple and they turned out lovely. Tara used her playdough tools to mould some unique bird,fish and even candy cane rusks for her little brother

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup of dry baby cereal
1 very ripe banana, mashed until smooth
2 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir in flour and cereal. In a small bowl mix in the banana,oil and 2 tbsp water. Add dry ingredients to the wet until you have a soft dough.
Roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface and mould into smooth shapes. Cook for 10-15 minutes then cool. Store in an air tight container.

Smellydough

I know, i hear you say..."Not another play dough recipe!" But wait, this one is my favourite. Great texture and smells delicious, give it a go!
I found this recipe in a cookbook called "Gifts from the kitchen" by Company's Coming, If you can get your hands on it, its a fabulous book with so many beautiful ideas to make and do
So for this recipe you need
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
1 pack of fruit flavoured drink mix
2 tsp. cream of tatar
1 cup water
1 tbsp oil
Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium saucepan then stir in water and oil. Heat and stir until thickened to the consistency of mashed potatoes. Cool for 5 mins then knead it on a floured surface until dry.

We made a lime and an orange smelly dough and it smelt lovely. We found we didn't need any colouring added to it as the drink mix was vibrant enough but you could add your own colours.

Moon Sand

We spent a fortune on "moon dough" at Christmas for Tara and was pretty disappointed so when i saw a recipe of moon SAND i thought maybe this will work better so we gave it a go!
Moon sand recipe is
6 cups of sand mixed with 3 cups of cornflour then add 1 and 1/2 cups of water slowly until you get a consistency that is manageable. We added blue colouring to the water as well.
Moon sand is basically soft like sand but wet enough to mould and stay. Great for mud pies and sandcastles!

If it dries out over a few days just top up with water to get it smooth again

Slow cooked Playdough

This day was a lovely sunny day so we were busy outside but i really wanted to make a batch of play dough to keep for a play date coming up. I figured we would try and cook in the slow cooker so i wouldn't have to watch over it constantly. We used this recipe
2.5 cups of water
1 1/4 cups of salt
1 1/2 tbl cream of tartar
5 tbl of vegetable oil
2.5 cups of flour

I took the insert out of the slow cooker and let Tara do the mixing which in the end looked like this...

Put the lid on a cooked on low for 2 hours stirring once half way through and we got this fluffy consistency. You will know its cooked when it springs back when you touch it.

Divided it up and added our favourite food colourings to them and we were ready to play!

We have started using "play dough mats" which are fantastic. Print them off then put them into a plastic sleeve and you have a rainy day activity to add to your play dough.There are plenty of free ones to download on google. This set got us to make

1 sausage in a pan

2 ice creams on a cone

3 spots on a ladybug

4 petals on a flower

5 balls juggling by a clown

6 apples on the tree

7 fish under the sea

8 legs on an octopus

9 frogs in the pond

10 candles on the cake

Calming Dough

At 30 months Tara had given up her afternoon nap and was struggling through the afternoon only to liven up when daddy arrived home at 5pm so i found we needed a relaxing playtime with daddy after dinner to wind down before bedtime.
I made our usual batch of play dough but added a calming blend of oils instead of vegetable oil in the mix. I used a specially made children's calming mix that i used in our oil burner when Tara was a newborn, its found at
http://http://shop.newdirections.com.au/epages/newdirections.sf/en_AU/?ObjectPath=/Shops/newdirections/Categories/12/118/1310

Relaxing, educational and even daddy can wind down after a hard day with this activity!