The Best Homemade Playdough Recipe

Today, I’m sharing the homemade playdough recipe that I made for my kids 40+ years ago. My daughter teaches pre-school and uses this recipe as well. Kids love playdough!

I bet you can hear the squeals when you ask your kids and grandkids if they want to make it and then play with it, right? It’s every kid’s favorite thing to play with.

The nice thing about this recipe, you can make it with supplies you have in your pantry. If you aren’t stocking unsweetened KoolAid now, you may want to grab a few packets the next time you go to the grocery store.

You will want to choose several different flavors and colors so you can make several color varieties and store the playdough balls for your kids and grandkids. You will love how wonderful this playdough smells.

Today we made some green playdough for my daughter’s pre-school to celebrate the holidays. Of course, any color works, and you can have fun making different varieties for different holidays and special occasions.

For example, if you have a birthday party for one of your kids or grandkids, you could make the playdough match their favorite color. If we have a disaster, you can always make playdough for the kids as something to take their minds off of the challenges at hand and fill some time until things return more to normal.

Don’t forget the cookie cutters, they love playing with different shapes as they “play” with their playdough. Oh, and mini rolling pins are always a big hit!

My other recipe, How To Make Playdough

Items You May Need In The Kitchen

• Mixing Bowl or Standmixer
• 4-cup Glass Measuring Cup
• Measuring Cups
• Airtight Containers
• Kids Mini Rolling Pin
• Cookie Cutters

Homemade Playdough Recipe

Step One: Gather Your Ingredients

Gather your ingredients. This is such a simple recipe! Four ingredients, plus the water, gotta love it!

Step Two: Reminder-Use Unsweetened Kool-Aid

Here’s a reminder to buy only UNSWEETENED Kool-Aid.

Step Three: Boil the Water

Bring the water to a boil and set it close by to be used in step six.

Step Four: Use Oil in the Mixer Bowl

I like to put the oil in the bottom of the mixer bowl because it helps keep the mixed ingredients from sticking to everything.

Step Five: Add Dry Ingredients

Add the flour, salt, and KoolAid to the mixing bowl.

Step Six: Pour Boiling Water on Dry Mixture

Next, pour the boiling water over the mixture in the mixing bowl. Be careful not to burn yourself with a splash!

Step Seven: Beat the Ingredients

Beat the ingredients until thoroughly mixed. At first, it will look grainy and lumpy. Keep beating the mixture.

Step Eight: Mix Until Thickend

As you beat the mixture it will look sticky, and then the mixture thickens up and is now playdough.

Finished Product

Store the playdough in heavy baggies, pint-size mason jars, or airtight Tupperware-type containers.

Homemade Playdough Recipe

Where did Play-Doh start?

I quote, Wikipedia “Play-Doh is a modeling compound for young children to make arts and crafts projects at home. The product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. Play-Doh was then reworked and marketed to Cincinnati schools in the mid-1950s.”

Is playdough different than modeling clay?

Playdough or Play-Doh as manufactured tends to crumble. This recipe is actually better than the original Play-Doh in my opinion because it doesn’t dry out as fast. Modeling clay is oil-based and is perfect for children older than 2-3 years old. Modeling clay is hard to clean up, it sticks to everything. Playdough crumbles and you can clean it up rather quickly.

What makes playdough so awesome for kids?

It’s extremely soft and is perfect for little fingers and hands, and it’s cheap to make. The clean-up is so easy. Some people think they need to buy the latest toy(s) or electronic gadgets to keep their kids and grandkids happy and occupied. I watched the group of kids at my daughter’s pre-school today as they got involved using her homemade batch of playdough. I was amazed at how they found creative ways to use the mixture, the shapes that came to life, and the easy time to clean it up and put it in various containers.

How long will the playdough stay soft?

If you store this recipe in an airtight container, it will last for months. If stored properly, you won’t be needing to make multiple batches of the playdough, just get it out of your storage area, pull it from the container, and away you go.

Do I need food coloring to make this recipe?

This is why I LOVE this recipe, the KoolAid not only gives us a yummy fragrance, but also color without having to use a whole bottle of food coloring. With the wide variety of colors/flavors available from KoolAid, you have so many choices to fit the occasion you have planned. It can be made more of an adventure if you get the kids involved in making it before they start playing with it. Double the fun from start to finish. It’s a win-win for me.

Can I make this Gluten-Free?

No, but you can use this Gluten-Free playdough recipe, The Best Gluten-Free Playdough Recipe

Final Word

Please let me know if you have made your own homemade playdough recipe, I would love to hear. Please be prepared for the unexpected, we must be ready for what comes our way. Stay safe, stay well. May God Bless this world, Linda