Make your own play dough
With the school holidays coming up I'm sure that many moms will be looking for ideas on how to keep the kids entertained. Play dough is a classic childhood toy everyone can have fun with and it's so easy to make at home you'll never buy again.
You will need:
2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
Food colouring
Disposable gloves
Here's how:
1. Mix all of the ingredients together, and stir over low heat. The dough will begin to thicken until it resembles mashed potatoes. When the dough pulls away from the sides and clumps in the centre, as shown left, remove the pan from heat and allow the dough to cool enough to handle.
NOTE: if your play dough is still sticky, you simply need to cook it longer!
Keep stirring and cooking until the dough is dry and feels like play dough.
2. Turn the dough out onto a clean counter or glass board and knead vigorously until it becomes silky smooth. Divide the dough into balls for colouring. Pop on the disposable gloves and make a well in the centre of each ball; add food colouring. Fold the dough over, working the food colour through the body of the play dough. Work the dye through, adding more as necessary to achieve your chosen colour.
3. When you're done, store your play dough in an air-tight container.
Tips:
If the play dough begins to dry out, you can knead a bit of water in again to soften the dough back to useability. Once it's dried past a certain point, however, you'll just have to start over.
If the play dough gets soggy, you can re-heat it to drive off the extra water the dough absorbed overnight.
You can also bake it in the oven to make hard dough figures and ornaments, then paint or otherwise decorate the surface.