Thursday, June 11, 2009

squishy squashy smells so good...

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Today we accomplished something great. Wonderful. Superb. A year in the making. We made homemade play dough that turned out perfectly! the kids and I have tried oodles of recipes that were just never "quite right". Either too sticky, too stinky, too dry, or they just plain went bad after only a few days. I took notes from every batch, and researched the topic, and today, we have, at long last, play dough perfection!! And completely non-toxic.

Of course it would be all too evil of me to NOT share the recipe with you all, so here it is! We started with green, but have 3 more batches to make, including purpleicious, orangey-orange, and pinktastic. Names are complements of the kids, and the green is technically named "slime green". We added incredible lemongrass essential oil to ours, that we bought at Chakra 4 Herbs here in Phoenix. They sell oodles of high quality essential oils both at their shop and online.

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Squishy-Squashy Play Dough Recipe

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons citric acid (available at most natural food stores or at amazon)
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
3/4 teaspoon table salt
10 or so drops of essential oil (we like lemongrass, sweet orange, vanilla, and lavender)
gel or liquid food coloring to achieve desired color strength (we prefer gel)

whisk together all of the ingredients in a decent size saucepan. Cook over medium heat for a few mins (3-5) stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan. A whisk works well for this, as long as it's a heat safe material. Keep stirring until the mixture clumps together in a ball and starts to look darker in color. flop it out onto the counter and let it cool. Knead it until it's smooth after it cools, and store it in an airtight container. Squash away!!

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this is what it will look like when it's done...

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let the squashing begin!

6 comments:

  1. I am so going to make this! I have seen homemade playdough that is dull and cracked. This looks awesome. What is gel? could you let me know at rdness@telus.net

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  2. I use a similar recipe and LOVE the kneading part!!! Thanks for the nice comment on my blog and happy squashing!

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  3. How fun! We haven't made playdough in a while...maybe tonight?

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  4. We LOVE making playdough. Ours have lasted a long time and after my son mixed the colors all together we call it "psychedelic playdough"!
    Try adding in some glitter for fun. And we also like peppermint essential oil.
    Thanks for the new recipe, I will try it out!

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  5. glitter is a cool idea!! stella would love that for sure.

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  6. Hi - thanks for visiting my blog. Your's looks like fab fun so if you don't mind *grins*, I'll add yours to my list. Besides, you're a fellow Michigander and I live not too far from the lake still.

    As for our children growing up and leaving us, I'm currently working on a top secret, patent pending potion that stops them from growing past a designated age. Obviously, I have some major tweaking to do on the potion since all 3 of mine have left the nest.

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