Thursday 4 October 2012

The Ultimate Playdough!

Ok, playdough. It's a hot topic. There is so many recipes online it's ridiculous. From playdough with cream of tartar to without, to edible playdough that to me just sounds like a weird ball of sweet stuff, and not actually playdough.

So I had a question recently and it was if I knew a good playdough recipe. I put it to my lovely readers and many, many said the one on the side of the McKenzie's Cream of Tartar container. I also got word that some recipes contained jelly. I was curious. I made, we played, I have attempted to clean up. Here is how it went :-)

McKenzie's Playdough Recipe - The ULTIMATE


That recipe was beyond my expectations. It came out perfectly. The Playdough is no different to bought Playdough - completely smooth, not oily or sticky. I didn't need to adjust it one bit. I've heard it lasts for months too, so we shall see. But to me this is the ULTIMATE. I don't think you can get playdough any better. I've emailed McKenzie's Foods and they've kindly offered a printable recipe for School of Mum readers. As soon as it arrives I'll pop it in the free printables section of the Blog.

I checked some jelly recipes online and decided to experiment. I made a second batch of McKenzie's Playdough recipe but tried with half the salt and added jelly crystals. I found it to be VERY sticky. I guess that's the melted jelly crystals at work. It wasn't a total fail though. I added some flour and kneaded it out a bit and it turned out ok. Not sure how long it will keep, but man it smelt delicious! Blue Heaven flavoured playdough. Mmmmmm :-) I then tried to mix some food colouring with the blue heaven and the results weren't great. But if you need brown to make some roads or dirt it's pretty good.


So I was pretty hesitant giving my 11 month old playdough to play with that's packed with so much salt. He took one lick and...


He never tried to eat it again! 

After that he decided it was OK and we had some fun.

 


So I think a version without salt would be nice but I really think salt is the key to making it the right texture and consistency. If anyone knows a no-salt version I'd love to give it a whirl, but I'm pretty happy he experimented and decided this wasn't a food pretty quick smart. We had a great play! The teacher in me has to tell you the benefits of playdough are endless, including:

*Imagination!
*Fine motor development
*Creativity!
*Literacy/Maths
*Science and Experimentation

The list is endless. In fact I could write a separate post about the benefits of playdough and activities that can be specifically done with playdough. Maybe I will another time.

In the meantime do you have an awesome playdough recipe you would like to share? Or maybe you're going to try this one. Let me know. Love to hear comments from readers, always :-)


And PS. Anyone have any cleaning up tips? That saucepan isn't looking good!

17 comments:

  1. Looks like Mr T is having lots of fun. LM has spent the morning playing with some Playdough :-)
    I've found using hot water can mean not having to cook in a saucepan to save it getting dirty. My tip for food colouring hands is shaving cream. Working in school science I often end up with colourful hands and I've tried lots of things from the science cupboard to clean off food colouring.

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    1. Great tips Thommo thanks! Who would of thought shaving cream could be so useful lol. Off to raid the husband's stash :-)

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    2. It doesn't always seem to work. Scrub as much as you can with soap and water first and a nail brush helps too. Shaving cream seems to work for that last tinge of blue or red that just doesn't want to come out. Probably depends on the type of shaving cream as well. I suspect it may be the oils. Maybe I need to do some experiments ;-)

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  2. What a great post Ange. my kids love playdough i really should get onto making another batch for them. I make the non cooking one i posted to your fb page. Turns out so good and last longer if stored in the fridge.

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    1. Thanks Salz! Look forward to checking out your no bake one. I was going to try that this morning too but I just got lazy when the other one turned out so awesome hehe.

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  3. My niece mentioned putting cream of tartar in, I haven't tried it yet. Maybe thats the key to getting to last longer. Playdough is very popular in our house, my recipe has loads of salt! Love the salt face lol.

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    1. Haha I felt a bit mean taking a photo of his face but it was just too good not to share. Poor thing, bet it tasted awful! I've popped it in Tupperware containers and I'll see how long they last. Apparently this stuff lasts for months but I'll keep you posted!

      Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment x

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  4. I don't know why I always thought playdough was for older kids, maybe because we always played with it when we were older and weren't allowed to let the littlies get it. Thinking back though, that was probably because Mum didn't want to be cleaning playdough out of the carpet. My daughter is 10 and a half months old and I am now thinking some playdough might be just the thing I am looking for. She is in desperate need of new things to do and explore and this will definitely be fun.

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    1. Yeah it's true though. We just associate it with Toddler and beyond. My husband said "Ummm...are you sure he is ready for playdough?" and my response was "well, why not?" Obviously I wasn't going to leave him unattended to make an enormous mess and perhaps swallow the stuff, but this is the perfect age to be exploring new textures, smells and tastes so it's actually quite ideal!

      You've given me an idea for another Blog post. Perhaps I should explore some more tactile things to do with little ones at this age :-)

      Thanks for reading and commenting x

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  5. That look on your little boy's face is priceless. I've always used the recipe on the cream of tartar packet, and recently I tried a no cook one that went well too.

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    1. It is isn't it :-)
      I've heard no cook ones are great too. I may have a guest blogger doing one for the Blog next week :-)

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  6. Looks amazing! I'll print now and try with my girls next week x

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    1. Just found a quick printable for you:
      http://www.mckenziesfoods.com.au/recipe/26/Playdough

      I'd love to see photos of the girls trying it out! :-)

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  7. Oh, his little scrunched up face is priceless!!
    Thanks for sharing this! My boys love play dough and a home made recipe will make things grander :)

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  8. Glad the cream of tartar worked so well for you, ours is in an old ice-cream container and has lasted so well it continues to amaze me. My 6yo makes models of things (like a snow man), or lays out strips for a 2D drawing, my 3yo likes to roll it into balls or print on it with cookie cutters, my 1 yo likes to pick it to shreds and squeeze it! Fun for eeryone.

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  9. PS: if the shaving cream didn't work have you tried lemon juice?

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