The World's Best Homemade Play-Doh (2024)

I’ve had this recipe for homemade play-doh in my arsenal since middle school home ec and it is LITERALLY the best homemade play-doh in all the land.

Read more about it after the recipe!

So last week, which feels like 50 million years ago, my second grader informed me on Sunday night that he needed to bring homemade salt dough to school the next day. If I were a good mom and checked his folder every night like I’m supposed to, I would have seen this note, but alas, I am not a folder-checking mom and I figure if it’s important enough, he’ll tell me or the teacher will text me, wondering if I’m going to send the field trip money.

She had attached a recipe, but you see, I consider myself something of a salt dough snob and I knew just by looking at it that it would not suffice. So I made him a batch of this play-doh (begrudgingly…because it was 8:00 on the Sunday night where we celebrated Daylight Savings and the next day was the beginning of teacher appreciation week, and, like an idiot, I had signed up to bring biscuits and gravy to 2 of my 3 kids’ schools on the worst Monday morning of the year.)

When he came home from school, I eagerly asked, “Did you have the best play doh in the class?!” And then I wondered when I became the kind of person that engages in play doh quality competitions that no one else knows they’re competing in.

So. I give to you all The World’s Best Homemade Play-Doh recipe. I guarantee, not even your saltier-than-salt-dough teenagers will be able to resist playing with this stuff.

how to make the world’s best homemade play-doh

You’ll need 3 cups of white all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of table salt, 3-4 tablespoons of any cooking oil (start with 3 and add more if necessary), 3 cups HOT water, and food coloring.

Add the flour, cream of tartar,

salt,

and 3 tablespoons cooking oil to a large pot.

I’m using coconut oil because I love my kids more than you do and because the coconut oil seeps through their pores and kills germs circulating in their bloodstreams. Just kidding. None of that is true. I’m using it because I have a jar of it from when it was cool to use coconut oil for everything and I need to use it before it goes bad and if the world goes down in flames, I’m not frying my last fried chicken in coconut oil because I used the last of my peanut oil in homemade play doh.

Anyway.

Whisk together. Add water

and whisk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the dough forms a soft ball. Be sure not to overcook–it will be too dry. Remove from heat and then scrape together the mixture into a ball. Place in a Ziploc bag or cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool slightly.

Divide into portions

and use food coloring to color as desired

(if you want to make it all the same color, add the food coloring with the water.) If you add the food coloring now, it might get on your hands. It’s okay, no one’s gonna see you anyway, but you can add a few drops of bleach to some hand soap and it will come right off.

For very vibrant colors, use more than you think you’ll need.

When done playing with the dough, store in airtight containers or Ziploc bags.

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