This is a recipe for 'cooked' playdough, because that's what my Mum used to make for us as kids (and for the various playgroups and pre-schools she ran over the years). There are unbaked recipes out there, but this works so well that it's my 'go to' - thanks Mum!
Ready in 40 minutes (including cooling time). This 'recipe' makes enough playdough for 1 child to play with (1 'grapefruit sized' ball in total). Double / treble the quantities as needed, but make sure you use a big enough pan and remember that the heating time may need increasing too...
Gather together for the playdough...
1 cup of plain flour.
1/2 cup 'table' salt (i.e. fine salt, not salt flakes and definitely not rock salt).
1/2 tbsp cream of Tartar (optional but it makes it more elastic and preserves it somewhat too).
1 cup warm water (warm from the tap is fine).
1 tbsp vegetable oil (e.g. rapeseed oil or sunflower oil).
1/4 tsp red and 1/8 tsp green and 1/8 tsp purple/grape (which looks black if you add plenty) of food colouring gels (these give more intense colours than liquid colourings - if you do use liquid food colouring, then you will need to re-cook it for a few minutes after adding to dry it out again).
Get making the playdough...
1. In a medium saucepan put the dry ingredients (1 cup plain flour, 1/2 cup fine salt, 1/2 tbsp cream of Tartar) and mix them well. There is no need to sieve.
2. Now add the 1 cup of warm water and the 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, stir well. It will now look lumpy and a bit wet (like very wet mashed potato) - this is fine at this stage.
3. Heat the pan using the LOWEST heat on your hob for 5 minutes, stirring often (every 30 seconds or so, give another stir). Don't worry about this recipe ruining the pan - a quick soak in hot and soapy water removes the playdough residue easily once you have finished the heating/cooling.
4. After the 5 minutes of gentle heat and stirring, the mixture should look like lumpy and quite dry mashed potato. You know the playdough is 'cooked' properly when you can pile it into the middle of the pan and stand the spoon upright in it without the spoon falling over. Turn off the heat once it has reached this consistency.
5. Place the pan on a wire trivet to cool for 20 minutes or so, in a cool place.
6. Once the playdough is at a low enough temperature to handle, knead it in the saucepan for 1 minute until it is smooth.
7. Divide the playdough up into 6 even parts, 1 part will be made purple/black (centre of the poppy), 1 part will be made green (leaves) and the remaining 4 parts of playdough will be combined and made red (poppy petals).
8. Poke a hole into the middle of the ball of playdough and add the desired food colouring gel colour.
9. Put on washing up gloves (home compostable versions are available). If you squash and squeeze the food colouring gel to distribute it WITHIN the ball of playdough at first, then you'll not get too much colour on your hands / gloves. Roll and squash the ball around on your hands for about two minutes to distribute the colour evenly. If you want a more intense colour then add more gel.
10. Whilst playing with the playdough why not watch the CBeebies 2 1/2 minute video called 'Poppies' which shows a rabbit's eye view of the WW1 battlefield with your child. Do keep a close eye on younger children when they are playing with playdough - the salty horrid taste should put off toddlers from eating much of it, but do watch them and do be extra careful with pets as DOGS will happily devour all of it and that much salt is not good for them.
11. Once you have finished playing with the playdough, put it in an airtight tupperware, in which it should last for at least a month. If playdough is used by lots of children (e.g. at playgroup) it should be remade often for hygiene reasons. If you make it for home-use and it dries out a bit (due to age) add a dash of boiling water and knead. If it is really dried out then it will need binning. If it is sticky from humidity (or from not being cooked quite enough) return it to the pan over a the very low heat for a couple of minutes, stirring all the while.
12. When completely finished with it, homemade playdough can be ripped up / chopped up into small bits and added to your compost heap - I do love a fully home-compostable craft!
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