How to Make Playdough Without Cooking

Make Playdough Without Cooking Intro.jpg

Homemade playdough can be made quickly and inexpensively. Although cooked playdough recipes last longer and are more elastic, you can also learn how to make playdough without cooking. Kids can customize their own colors and projects with minimal adult supervision.

Edit Steps

Edit Part One: Mixing the Dry Ingredients

Pour 2 cups (250g) of flour in a large bowl.

Add 1 cup (292g) of salt.

Measure and add 2 tbsp. (20.25g) of cream of tartar. This ingredient gives it the elastic consistency that makes playdough malleable.

Mix these ingredients very well with a wooden spoon or whisk.

Make a well in the center, like you would when making pasta or pastry. Simply clear make a rounded hole in the center of the dry ingredients.
- If you want to make 2 colors of playdough, split the dry ingredients and make 2 wells. Then, split the oil and water into 2 separate containers.

Edit Part Two: Mixing the Wet Ingredients

Boil 2 cups (473ml) of water in the microwave or on the stove.

Pour 2 tbsp. (30ml) of vegetable oil into the well in the dry ingredients.

Measure and pour in 2 cups of boiling water. If your kids are helping to make the playdough, do this step for them to avoid burns.

Edit Part Three: Coloring the Playdough

Add liquid or gel food coloring at this point. Adjust it to your or your child’s preference.
- For an all-natural dye, boil beets or blueberries in water for about 1 hour. Add this boiled water to the well, in place of plain water. ^[1]
- For a sparkly texture, add glitter to the recipe before you mix it.

Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Let the mixture sit for a few minutes. It will look too goopy, but will start to stiffen after 5 minutes or so.

Remove it from the bowl and start to make a ball with it. After the ball is formed, it should be ready for your kids to play with. ^[2]

Edit Tips

Store no-cook playdough in airtight containers. It should last for up to 2 weeks.

No-cook playdough is perfect for modeling projects that need to be partially or completed dried, such as baking soda volcanoes.

Add a few drops of glycerin along with the oil to make the dough shiny.

Edit Warnings

Beware that no-cook playdough will harden if left out for several hours. If you want something that be left out in open air, try a cooked playdough recipe.