As my baby girl continues to get older I’m constantly searching for new activities to do with her to keep her little mind (and hands) active. That’s when I discovered I could make my own playdough. While some of my DIYs take a few tries to master, this is the easiest homemade playdough recipe out there. It is an exact replica of store-bought playdough but at a fraction of the cost. Oh, and it only takes a few minutes to make.

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The Easiest Homemade Playdough Recipe

Whether you’re making it for your own kid, or a niece or nephew, you’ll need a few simple ingredients to get started.

What You Will Need:

• 1 cup of flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar 
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 TBS cooking oil
• 1 cup of water
• food coloring of choice (I used these pretty pastel colors)
• OPTIONAL: Fun playdough tools!

How to make the easiest homemade playdough recipe

1.) In a bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients.

This includes the flour, cream of tartar, and salt. You may wonder what the cream of tartar is for: it’s to keep the playdough nice and malleable!

2.) Separately, mix the water and food coloring together in a medium-sized pot.

3.) Once that’s combined, add your oil.

4.) Add your dry ingredients to the pot and mix well.

5.) Cook on medium heat until a dough starts to form.

I keep stirring to keep the playdough all together.

6.) Once it starts clumping together, take off the heat but allow it to cook down for a couple of minutes.

7.) Spread the playdough on a kitchen mat or baking pan and knead it until it’s nice and soft.

You’re done! Now give it to your little ones so they can mush it into the carpet, er, I mean, have a fun time!  And when they are done playing, make sure to store in either an airtight container or just ziplock bags. This recipe makes a decent-sized amount of playdough so you could also divide it in half and make two separate colors.

If your playdough gets too dry just add a little more olive to soften it up again.

Also, since the salt content is high I do find it is very drying on my own hands so I always make sure to wipe down my little girl’s hands and rub some lotion on her when she is done playing.

Your little ones may also enjoy these homemade soaps that you can add their favorite little toys to! For more fun, check out this DIY playdough soap recipe! 

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