How to make play dough at home using powdered fruit drink mix

Homemade play dough has many advantages over store bought play dough. Besides being cheaper, the size is bigger since normally you only manage to find small pots in stores!

Here is an easy recipe for a play dough which will last a few months if stored correctly in the fridge. The ingredients are easy to find and it involves no cooking so you can make the play dough with your child. It uses a powdered fruit drink mix which will give it the color and the scent. You may want to experiment with a few flavours. My favorite is a punch flavour which gives a dark pink play dough which my daughter loves.

The ingredients for this play dough are:

1 cup white flour (any type)

1/2 cup of fine salt

2 tablespoons of oil

1 small packet of powdered fruit drink mix (like Kool-Aid)

1 cup of boiling water.

glitter powder is optional.

You will also need a large bowl and a wooden spoon.

Method:

• Take a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together and add the boiling water and the oil.
• Use a wooden spoon to mix the ingredients well until the mixture starts cooling.
• When the mixture has cooled down a bit, kneed well with your hands.
• At this point you may still want to let it cool down some more before giving it to your child. In the meantime, prepare the rolling pin and cutters.

This is a non edible play dough so make sure the children involved know that because the smell and color of the powdered fruit drink mix may mislead them. To avoid mould, store in an airtight bag in the top section of the fridge (a zip lock bag would work well) and you will probably get a few months of life out of this play dough.

The play dough will be a bit hard to unroll when cold so it is best to take out of the fridge a few minutes before using it. If you find that it is still hard, you can kneed in a little bit more of extra oil and flour.

Just remind them that this is a non edible play dough because the smell and color of the powdered fruit drink mix may tempt them. To avoid mould, store in an airtight bag in the fridge and you will probably get a few months of life out of this playdough.

The play dough will be a bit hard to unroll when cold so it is best to take out of the fridge a few minutes before using it.

Here is a video of a very similar recipe that uses the cream of tartar (optional if available in your area) and uses warm water and dissolves mixture on the hob rather than using boiling water as per this recipe.