Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Fun with playdough

Maryn's most recent toy obsession is play-doh. I guess it's not technically a toy, but she will choose it 9 times out of 10 over her numerous other (and of course more expensive) toys. She especially likes to use it to make play food such as "smuffins"(maybe a combination scone-muffin?) or pancakes or "grim chee" (a rather macabre version of "grilled cheese").

After watching her play with her dwindling stash of store-bought play-doh via webcam, Grandma Carol sent us a recipe for homemade playdough. How fun! A real cooking project that when finished can be used to concoct endless new imaginary food items. The perfect activity!

Here's the recipe:

2 cups flour
2 cups water
4 Tbs. Oil
2 Tbs cream of tartar
1 cup salt
Food coloring

Mix all the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Simmer 2 to 3 minutes until dough come away from the sides of the pan. Knead a few minutes. Store in a plastic bag.

I tried this recipe using a 1:1 ratio of baking powder and baking soda to substitute for cream of tartar but the playdough came out too sticky and just got tougher to handle the next day. We tried a second batch using cream of tartar and it was perfectly pliable with no sticky goo residue. So go to the store and get the cream of tartar!

Here are some pictures of Maryn enjoying her playdough (we used some jello powder to color it but you would probably have better results with the food coloring):





2 comments:

Drew & Erica said...

Jess - Yes, I heard playdough was the 'hit toy' of Christmas. She was trying to make 'grim chee' - either that was grilled cheese, or she's a fan of ethnic food and was trying to make kim chee??

cute pics :)

Carol said...

I think Playdough is a perfect way for our future chef of America to practice her favorite pastries. I can hardly wait to come up and play with her playdough.