Ho! Ho! Ho! This is a lovely DIY and can be used as DIY gifts too this season.
I wanted to introduce My Munchkin to Play Dough for quite some time but I was sure that I would not use the commercial ones, as you know everything goes into their mouth.
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So I researched on loads of different ways of making it and finally found one that worked well for me, and it is just SO SIMPLE to make at home.
What you would need is:
1) 1 Cup of All Purpose Flour (Maida)
2) ¼ Cup of Salt
3) ¾ Cup of Water
4) 3 Tablespoons of Lime Juice
5) 1 Tablespoon of Oil
6) Food Colouring
7) Food fragrance oil (optional)
What you need to do once you have your ingredients in place?
In a nonstick pan, mix water, oil, and lime juice and heat over medium flame. Add food colouring (whichever colour you choose to use) and food fragrance oil, if using (I did not use any) to the mixture.
Note: When you do not use the fragrance, there will be a little smell of the lime. My Munchkin and I am okay with it so I continue not using this ingredient.
In another bowl, combine the flour and salt.
Once the water mixture become hot (it should not boil), slowly add in the dry ingredients (flour and salt mixture) and keep stirring it in.
Continuously stir this mixture until all the ingredients combine. If you feel any part is sticky, flatten it with your spoon and flip it over and then mix again. It should start forming into a ball (make sure not to overcook it).
Remove it from the heat and on to a plate and let it cool down a little bit. Next, start kneading the dough for two to three minutes.
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The entire process probably takes 5 minutes.
Voila! Your Homemade Play Dough is ready to use.
While kneading you will feel how soft this is to use. One batch of these should make about 450-500 gms of Play Dough.
Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight box and it will stay for a minimum 3 months. So you can make 3-4 colours at a time and keep it.
Age: Whenever you feel your Munchkin is ready. You can start as early as 1 year old (I started at almost 20 months but also because I was looking for the perfect recipe).
Purpose: Extremely good for gross motor development and also open ended play.
Tips: You often may have a problem that all the colours are mixed up or because they are not put back in the box they dry out. What I do is, I have small boxes (50 gms roughly) where I remove only a little dough at a time and give My Munchkin to play. This way it lasts for very long.
Also initially I would recommend to give only 1 colour at a time, so as to not overwhelm them, and then later increase to two colours and so on.
So hurry and start making your own Homemade Play Dough and share some pictures with us.
With this I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!