Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe! - The Imagination Tree (2024)

by Anna Ranson

How to make the best ever, no-cook play dough recipe in just 4 minutes, that will lasts for 6 months! Voted the number one play dough recipe by teachers, parents and child-carers for many years in a row! I hope you’ll love it too 🙂

I’ve been working with children for over 20 years and play dough is the fail safe way to engage and excite little hands and minds! It is a brilliant sensory and fine motor tool that is ridiculously easy to make and SO much better than any store bought versions.

By making it yourself you know exactly what has gone into it and can also customise it in so many ways, such as adding colour, sparkles and even natural flavours or essential oils. It has a proven therapeutic quality and has saved my parenting on more occasions than I can number! It is, quite simply, the best play material out there.

I hope you will love my easiest ever, no-cook play dough recipe!

Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe! - The Imagination Tree (3)

The benefits of using play dough for young children are wonderfuland the play possibilities are endless!

You need:

[Amazon affiliate links to help you find the ingredients I recommend. Many of these are bulk size as it works out cheaper when making for classes or every month like we often do!]

Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe! - The Imagination Tree (4)

Method:

  • Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl
  • Add food colouring TO the boiling water then into the dry ingredients
  • Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough
  • Add the glycerine (optional)
  • Allow it to cool down thentake it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone.* This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency!*
  • If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right

Voila!

We use theseWilton Gel coloursBest Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe! - The Imagination Tree (5)as they are much more vibrant and take only a tiny amount to colour the dough. We also use them in all our other sensory play activities to and they last for ever!

You can store this play dough in an air tight container for at least 6 months. If you live in a humid climate you might need to store it in the fridge and out of sunlight.

Here’s our new video showing how EASY it is to make this play dough!!

Once you’ve made your play dough hop on over to this post where I explain the totally amazing benefits of play dough play! And recommend many items to start collecting to create a play dough tool kit. Here are some brilliant play dough tools we have and love to use alongside this recipe. These are totally worth adding to your play dough toolbox and will last for a very long time!

Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe! - The Imagination Tree (6)

I have listed the direct links to find the items in this image below:

Wooden pattern rollers

Wooden texture stampers

Wooden spools for building with playdough

Metal cookie cutters

Glass gems

Toy animals

Garlic Press

Mini metal pots

Paper Straws

Plus many more ideas in individual posts in my play dough archives!

How here are over 50+ ways to change this basic mix to create an amazing range of different play dough flavours and fun activities to go with them! Literacy, maths, imaginative play and role play to name just a few.

Click through to find your favourites and pin them for future use.

And here are 10 beautiful, natural play dough recipes for you to try too!

Enjoy!

Search the full Play Dough archives here

Looking for Salt Dough that can be played with then hardened into models to keep? Here is our Rainbow Glitter Salt Dough recipe

I hope you love this easy no-cook play dough recipe and will share it far and wide! Thanks for the hundreds upon hundreds of you that have already told me it’s the best recipe you’ve ever used and will use it in your classrooms and homes ever more! 🙂

[This post contains Amazon affiliate link to help you find products I love and recommend easily. Thank you!]

Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe! - The Imagination Tree (2024)

FAQs

Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe! - The Imagination Tree? ›

While cream of tartar is not an ingredient you probably keep on hand in your kitchen, it is worth the investment if you are trying to become a playdough making pro. Cream of tartar really helps to get your playdough to the fun gel form and prevent it from staying too wet.

How do you make playdough without cooking it? ›

Simple no-cook playdough
  1. A large bowl.
  2. 1 cup of salt.
  3. 2 cups of plain flour.
  4. 4 teaspoons of cream of tartar.
  5. 2 tablespoons of cooking oil.
  6. 2 cups of boiling water.
  7. Food colouring (optional)
Oct 12, 2023

What does cream of tartar do to playdough? ›

While cream of tartar is not an ingredient you probably keep on hand in your kitchen, it is worth the investment if you are trying to become a playdough making pro. Cream of tartar really helps to get your playdough to the fun gel form and prevent it from staying too wet.

How do you make playdough with glycerin? ›

Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar, and vegetable oil in a large mixing bowl. Add food coloring or oils to the boiling water, and then slowly add the water to the. dry ingredients. Stir continuously until it comes together as a sticky dough, add the (optional) glycerin.

What are the 4 ingredients in homemade playdough? ›

Simple Homemade Playdough Recipe
  1. 1 cup flour.
  2. 1/2 cup cornstarch.
  3. 1/2 cup water.
  4. 1 teaspoon vegetable oil.
  5. gel food coloring of your choice.
Apr 29, 2022

What happens if you don't put cream of tartar in playdough? ›

The cream of tartar helps give the playdough a stiffer, stretchier texture, as well as a bit of added volume. It also acts as a natural preservative and stabilizer, helping your dough last a bit longer before it becomes crumbly or starts to go bad.

Why add salt to playdough? ›

The salt helps the proteins stay stuck together, you may notice that playdough you buy in the store also has a salty smell. When you mix all of these ingredients together, you create a chemical reaction. The playdough you create is an entirely new substance that is different from the ingredients you started with.

What does baking soda do to playdough? ›

A major benefit of baking soda playdough though is that it dries into a beautiful bright white and very hard material. Once dry you can color it with watercolors or acrylic paints and apparently you can even sand it (according to this video).

What is the best homemade playdough recipe? ›

how to make the world's best homemade play-doh. You'll need 3 cups of white all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of table salt, 3-4 tablespoons of any cooking oil (start with 3 and add more if necessary), 3 cups HOT water, and food coloring.

What is the secret ingredient in Play-Doh? ›

Play Dough Secret Ingredient: Glycerin

It's a thick sugar based liquid that often used as a moisturizer…and sweetener. Go figure. Add it to your dough for extra shine–just like the stuff from the toy aisle! It will also keep your dough from drying out quickly.

How to make homemade playdough with 2 ingredients? ›

Instructions
  1. Place the cornstarch in a large bowl.
  2. Mix in the hair conditioner with your hands–it will just start coming together and it will be pliable and very, very smooth. If desired, add a drop or two or food coloring.
  3. You may need to add more conditioner as you go. Use food coloring to color as desired.
Nov 8, 2022

Can I make playdough without hot water? ›

1. Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl. 2. Add the cold water, oil and drops of food colouring and mix together.

Which is better cooked or uncooked playdough? ›

There wasn't a huge difference between the final result of cooked and uncooked recipes, but there is one key ingredient you really need to use: cream of tartar, which was a common ingredient in all the recipes that worked well because it keeps DIY playdough from becoming a crumbly mess.

Does homemade playdough dry hard? ›

The product called “Play Doh” and also the homemade play doughs are all water-based, so they'll harden if simply left out in the air (the water in them will evaporate out and into the air).

References

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