This two-ingredient, no-cook play dough isn’t quite as fluffy as cooked play dough–it turns out that whopping amount of salt makes a BIG difference!–but it’s still very nice to play with. It’s quick to make, with no steps that are unsafe for a kid. In fact, this is a terrific recipe for even a little kid to help make!
Materials
To make this play dough, you will need:
flour. I like to use the cheapest possible flour for play dough, but yes, play dough emergencies do happen, and I have on occasion made excellent batches of play dough using organic flour (sigh!), bread flour, whole wheat flour… pretty much whatever flour I happened to have in my kitchen when the need for play dough struck! skin-safe oil. I kind of like the smell of baby oil, but sweet almond oil would be even better for those with sensitive skin. Olive oil is another, though pricier, option, but hey–sometimes what you’ve got on hand is cheaper than a trip to the store! bowl. Any bowl will do. You’re going to be mixing this play dough entirely with your actual hands, so keep that in mind when you dish out your flour. Massaging oil into flour gets oddly tiring after a while!
Step 1: Measure out the flour.
Scoop out a bowl-ful of flour into any bowl you feel like using. If you’re making this with kids, the sensory fun starts here! Dish them out some flour and let them explore the texture. For extra fun, dish them out a couple of kinds of flour–mixing the textures won’t mess up the dough, and it adds another level of tactile discernment for small fingers. Don’t give little kids as much flour as you see in the picture above, unless you’d really like to spend all the time you saved making this play dough instead sweeping your kitchen.
Step 2: Massage in the oil.
This recipe also doesn’t require any measurements–it would be impossible, anyway, since every flour and every oil combination would mix at a different ratio. Instead, you’re going to add some oil, massage it into the flour, add some more oil, massage it into the flour, etc., until you get a consistency that you like. It’s not unlike cutting fat into a piecrust or biscuit dough. The first few glugs of oil that you massage in will make the flour pebbly, and it’s only after a while and more massaging that you’ll start to notice the dough sticking together when you squeeze it. If you’ve got kids working with you, this is a wonderful fine-motor exercise for them. Massaging the oil into the flour builds dexterity and strengthens the pincer grip that is essential to writing. It’s also a lovely sensory experience that will encourage kids to keep at it and build their fine-motor strength even further. When you notice the mixture beginning to look and act like dough, you’re nearing the end of the process and you just need to decide how doughy vs. how sandy you want it to be. Left on the sandier side, as it is in the above photo, the texture and play experience strongly resembles that of store-bought moon sand, and many people do use this as a homemade substitute for that material. If your kids are especially into toy construction vehicles, the sandier dough is a great stopping point, as it’s very scoopable by diggers and will make lovely tracks when driven upon by dump trucks. If you keep going just a little longer, though, and add just a little bit more oil at a time, you’ll soon achieve a genuine play dough consistency, as in the photo above. It’s never going to be quite as moldable as conventional cooked play dough, because the process of heating flour, salt, cream of tartar, and just a little oil together is irreplaceable, but this is a VERY solid play dough that kids will enjoy. If you feel like you went a little too hard with the oil, dust the ball of play dough with more flour and work it in, and it will absorb the excess. Because it’s got such a high oil content, this is not a play dough for setting on the couch or the bed or the carpet… as if any play dough is, lol! When my kids were little, I really liked this play dough for park days and beach days and yard play, as my kids never could be convinced that play dough didn’t belong on the couch or the bed or the carpet, ahem. And don’t forget the fun mix-ins! Offer up on-hand materials like cinnamon sticks, rock salt, Epsom salts, and dried pastas, rices, and beans, and your kids will act as if you’ve given them a brand-new toy every time.
