we celebrated madeline's first birthday last saturday, and as part of the festivities we played playdough pictionary. haven't heard of it? well, that is only because richard and i haven't sorted out the rules quite well enough to apply for a patent.
my mom sent me a playdough recipe a few months back, and i decided we needed to make some, even though i was a bit sceptical. i seem to remember homemade playdough from when i was kid being dry and not stretchy enough. certainly it was not as nice to squeeze through your fingers as the store-bought kind. plus i don't think it smelled the same. regardless of this vague negative memory, we gave it a go. wow, was i surprised. it was really great. we bought some small tubs of the real stuff in supplemental colours and i can honestly say the homemade version gave the purchased variety a run for its money.
in case anyone is interested, here is the recipe we used. it takes no time at all, and it isn't messy.
HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons food colouring (yes this is a lot but it makes the dough a very vibrant colour)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup water
mix all the ingredients together in a medium pan. stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. the mixture becomes quite lumpy as it turns to dough--don't worry about that! make sure you don't use a high heat or your dough will become too hard.
when the dough forms a ball in the centre of the pan, take it off the heat and let it cool. take it out of the pan and knead it a bit on a lightly floured surface.
store it in the fridge in a ziploc bag or tupperware container.
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