Easy To Make Homemade Playdough

Once you see how your child loves playing with playdough, it won’t be long before you begin searching for a homemade playdough recipe that you can make yourself. Toby Books is happy to tell you that it’s a lot easier than you think, and it only takes a few ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry.

The recipes that I’m going to share with you today are extremely easy and fun to make.

There are two different types of playdough that are ideal for crafts for kids. The one you make in a saucepan over the stove with Cream of Tartar and the other is a cold method, where you mix the ingredients in a bowl, without Cream of Tartar. The fact that there are two different types of homemade playdough recipes does not necessarily mean that one is a better option than the other. In fact, both versions will keep in the refrigerator for up to four weeks. I have included a video below that shows you how to make the cold version in easy to follow steps. This is my preferred way of making homemade playdough.

They both work equally well, but it comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. I prefer the cold method for crafts for kids, but only because it is a shorter process and a BIG BONUS is that there is less to clean up afterward. 

What is Cream of Tartar?

In the time that I was investigating the different homemade playdough recipes, I noticed some prefer the recipes with Cream of Tartar and others prefer it without. I wondered what the reason for that would be, and decided to do a bit more digging. The last thing I wanted was to suggest a recipe on Toby Books that contains toxins or other harmful chemicals. Thankfully this was not the case.

What I discovered was quite interesting and something that I never knew. Cream of Tartar is an acid, a by-product of the process of making wine. It is found in the sediment left behind in barrels after the wine has been fermented. Winemakers proceed to purify it by some advanced and rather complicated process… (I’ll spare you the agony of going into the details) … where it becomes the white powder that is used in baking. Something else that I discovered while I was doing my investigation, and another something that I did not know, was that Cream of Tartar, mixed with baking soda gives us baking powder.

This is what I think: Considering that Cream of Tartar acts as an agent that makes baked products light and fluffy by reacting and causing bubbles, I can only conclude that when you put Cream of Tartar into your playdough mixture… the playdough will be light and fluffy in texture.

If any of you try this and notice the difference between the two methods, please leave a comment below. All of us at Toby Books would love to hear what your thoughts are, and how your crafts for kids have worked out.

Toby Book’s Playdough Ingredients:

• Flour – 1 cup
• Salt – 1/2 cup
• Water – 1/2 cup
• Food colour or washable paint (optional)