No-cook playdough....a revelation!

Just for fun the other week I looked up a no-cook playdough recipe.

I can't remember why, possibly because I was house-sitting and didn't have my regular cooked playdough recipe handy.

Well, I'm converted.

No messy pot to clean up. (Have I told you I'm lazy?)

No funky smell while it's cooking.

And it's less sticky than the cooked variety. Not that the cooked variety is very sticky at all but the no-cook recipe turns out firmer and more like the store bought product.

Now, I can't lay my hands on the exact recipe I used, I probably just scribbled it down on some scrap of paper so it has long since disappeared.

But the recipe was something like this one, I know it included boiling water, as opposed to cold...

No-cook Playdough

4 cups plain flour

2 cups salt

2 tablespoons of cream of tartar

3 tablespoons of cooking oil

food colouring of choice

3 1/2 - 4 cups of boiling water

(This particular version of no-cook playdough comes from The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady)

Essentially, you just throw it all in a bowl and mix it up well.

And look at the colours....

The house we stayed at had gel food colouring so we used that for colour, which is pretty vibrant..

But the pre-school my 5 year old goes to uses powdered paint for colour and that produces playdough that jumps off the table and screams at you to come and play.

So don't forget fresh playdough as a great thrifty activity for a cold, rainy (Melbourne) day.

And, it's value in smoothing out the nerves of a cranky, crabby child.