It took a long time before the Brave Hero would even think about touching playdough. Now, not only does he enjoy playing with it, he’s willing to explore new textures within it. So I made a batch of flour-free playdough, because of it’s reputation of being silky and soft.
If you are a parent to only typical children right now, you are most likely shrugging your shoulders and wondering what the big deal is all about.
If you are a parent of a kid with special needs, well, I totally appreciate the virtual high fives. heh.
I went with a recipe comprised of baking soda, corn starch, water and grapefruit essential oil.
Oh. I almost forgot. The secret ingredient. Flourescent finger paint. Now, if you don’t have any of this kind of finger paint on hand, or you don’t have a black light, worry not, you can use regular finger paint.
The recipe is simple:
1lb baking soda
1 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 cup water
fingerpaint (I added this to my water)
essential oil (optional) We used grapefruit essential oil. (I added this to the dough in the pan at the end. Essential oils are kinda heat sensitive and they will burn off during your cooking time.)
In a saucepan, combine baking soda and cornstarch; add water and cook over medium heat until the thickness of mashed potatoes, and your dough pulls away from the pan.
Cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool. I just stuck a plate over my pan.
When cool, knead out any lumps.
Right when you think your concoction will never set up….that’s when it will. Don’t think that you can go and check an email or two and then come back and stir it again. (ahem)
I found that the recipe above made for a dough that was stickier than I liked. So I added extra corn starch. It easily incorporated itself into my dough ball.
Smooth and silky.
See this black light? I’ve had it since I was 16. Proof that there was electricity when I was a teenager! ha!
Dough and cookie cutters on the light box.
Busy at play.
A heart!
Adding in the black light. You should have seen the look on Parker’s face!
I wanted to show you where/how I stored our playdough tools and our light box activities. These are from Ikea. I’m not a huge Ikea fan (did I just hear a collective gasp?) but I do like some of their organizational stuff. The cheap part of it.
Alphabet stamps for playdough experiences!
Okay. So what is your favorite play dough recipe? I’d love to know!
*Because I felt this recipe was a little sticky, I’m linking you to a couple of other flour-free recipes:
Twitter: marriedlife
Jan 19, 12
Thank you for this recipe!!! I think I might even have some grapefruit oil in my old soap making supplies! My boys have gluten allergies and it never even occurred to me until last week that play dough had flour in it… and one of them, his most visible symptom is a skin rash. I know it’s from eating the gluten, but I’m sure playing with it doesn’t help either!
It really looks soft! And so good that there is another playdough option for those with gluten allergies.
Love this idea! Aaron’s not ready for playdough yet, but my kindergartener would love it! (and I’m not a fan of the regular playdough texture, Yuk.) Thanks!! Hope things are going well for you guys.
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I love Playdough! My lil guy is a little young for it now, but as soon as I’m sure he wouldn’t eat it all, I can’t wait to share it with him! Thanks for stopping by Hardly a Housewife, I’m following your blog now.
Twitter: nancyberk
Feb 3, 12
Wow! My mom used to make us something like this. It brings back great memories and obviously you are creating plenty of those in your family. Parker must love waiting to see what you come up with each day! And bravo for hanging onto that black light!
Hi,
Play dough time, this is also what i did to my students. But we dont have that cutter and any other stamps. But looks more fun. Visit from Alexa and with love I added you in my list.
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