Peace, Love & Playdough

Often, our most peaceful moments as a family occur when there is playdough involved. Bo makes pizzas, cupcakes and, more recently, Christmas crackers (I found a keyring buried inside a long lump of playdough this morning) and Christopher makes irregular-looking lumps that he claims to be steamrollers and tractors. He then sprinkles blobs around the house, always making sure he gets at least a few lumps in my shoes.

And I get to drink a cup of tea on the sofa while the café staff are kept occupied. It works for everyone.

Our playdough is also one of our favourite gifts to give Bo and Christopher’s friends. We can put all our love into it, create imaginative wrapping and we know it will bring them as much happiness as it brings us.

So, here is the best-ever playdough recipe. It is so easy – takes about 5 minutes in all – and, once you get a stock of the supplies you need, can be whipped up at a moment’s notice whenever you need it! It is also fun for older children to help with preparing it.

What you will need:

For the playdough:

1 cup plain flour 

½ cup salt 

2 tbsp cream of tartar

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Stir together as it heats up – it should take only a couple of minutes at medium to high heat to stiffen and turn into dough. Once it is ready, remove from saucepan and divide into sections to decorate.

To decorate:

Food colouring

Glitter

Lavender essential oil (if you want it to smell lovely)

Add colour, glitter and lavender oil to each section of the playdough and kneed together in your hands until the colour has evened out in each one.

Store in an airtight container or bag and combine with blunt knives, spoons, cookie cutters and rolling pins for maximum fun! For wrapping, greaseproof paper tied up with wool looks good and keeps the playdough fresh. 

The simple beauty of playdough!