Kool-Aid Playdough
I just made the best playdough for my daughter. She is fascinated by playdough. However, when she plays with it, she drops little pieces of it everywhere. The baby is happy to come behind her and eat them. That's a problem for me. I know playdough is non-toxic, but it's not made to be eaten.
This koolaid playdough isn't made to be eaten either. But, it can be. All the ingredients are edible. I'm pretty sure it will taste terrible, but I'm not worried if they do eat it.
I got this recipe from Miss Amy at my childrens' sign language class. Miss Amy owns The Signing Connection here in Austin. Sign language has been an amazing benefit for my children. I can't stress enough how important I think it is. That's a different topic, for a different time.
I made three flavors (colors) of playdough, grape, cherry, and green apple (purple, red, and green), in about 30 minutes. It smells great, it was easy, it feels just like playdough (actually, I think it has a better texture), it was inexpensive, and supposedly it will last for six months. I'll have to update this when it eventually dries out.
The Ingredients:
1 Cup Flour
1/4 Cup Salt
3 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1 Package of unsweetened Kool-Aid (the small packages that are about $0.20 each)
1 Cup Water
1 TBS Vegetable Oil
The Directions:
Pour the dry ingredients into a medium saucepan. Mix the oil and water together (yes, the oil mostly sits on top of the water). Place saucepan on stove top over medium heat. Slowly pour in the oil/water while mixing until a dough ball is formed. You will need ALL of the water. You may see the dough appear to form, but don't stop pouring and mixing until all the water is added and a dough ball forms. Here are some examples of what you will see:
Once your dough ball forms, put the it on the counter and let it cool a little -- just enough so you can work with it. Then start kneading.
This doesn't take long. You just knead it to get any last bit of stickiness out and to get the texture you like.
This made about 1 1/4 cups of each color. That is A LOT of playdough. I'm considering freezing 1/2 cup of each color. The kids won't know the difference and if, after this playdough dries out, it will defrost and be usable, that will save even more money.
I used all purpose flour. However, I think you could use oat flour or even almond flour. For oat flour, I would try increasing the water by 2-4 tablespoons.
