Homemade Craft Dough Recipe

Toys are very different today than when we were kids — even in the last ten years, technology has made toys evermore complicated. But there’s one toy that will always stay the same: Play-doh. Tomorrow is National Play-Doh day so in honor of timeless toy, here’s a recipe for homemade craft dough:

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups water
• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 1/4 c. salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp. cream of tartar
• 5 tbsp. vegetable oil
• Food Coloring

• In a large pot (a 4 or 5-quart stock pot), mix everything together except for the food coloring. Stir with a wooden spoon until it’s well-combined. It’s OK if it’s lumpy – it will work itself out during the kneading process.
• Over low heat, cook the dough. Stir frequently. As it cooks, it will start to pull away from the sides of the pot and form dough – it takes about ten minutes, but the time may vary.
• Remove the pot from the heat.

• Turn the dough out on a clean surface and knead it until it’s smooth.
• Divide the dough into as many pieces for different colors as you want. This recipe yields about 44 oz. (almost 3lbs); for four colors, you can have about 1.5lbs for each color.

• To color, drop the color on each ball and then knead it until the color is even. You may have to play around a bit with the amount of color you add. For vibrant blue, green and yellow, ten drops was enough, but to get a vivid red, more food coloring was required.

Store the dough in airtight containers or sealable plastic bags. They should last for several months. This is an excellent winter activity for when your kids are stuck inside.