Play Dough Recipes Using Food Ingredients

 

After making a marshmallow play dough recipe a few weeks ago, I wanted to find other fun play dough recipes for my 13 month old. He’s becoming more interested in it and prefers doughs he can stretch and pull apart. Play dough is a great play resource that helps to develop little one’s fine motor skills, whilst having fun. For older kids, it fosters creativity and encourages them to use their imagination. 

Here are 5 playdough recipes you can make using food ingredients. Not only do they smell great, but they are also taste-safe which makes them perfect for little ones who like to taste test everything!

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

 

Squashies Play Dough

 

 

This play dough is edible, smells lovely and stretches loads! You don’t need to use food colouring because the colour of the sweets comes out in the dough. I found that this play dough left an oily residue on my hands, similar to the marshmallow recipe. So make sure you cover the playing surface and have wipes handy.

 

Ingredients

To make this play dough you will need:

• 10 Squashies or 20 halves if you want to make separate colours. This is around 36g of sweets
• ¼ cup of cornflour/cornstarch
• 2 tsp olive oil

 

Instructions

1. Add the Squashies to a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds
2. Add in the cornstarch and oil, then mix together
3. Once you cannot mix any more, tip everything out onto a surface and knead. Be careful because it may still be hot

 

Tips

The Squashies tend to harden quickly so try to mix the ingredients together as soon as possible

Save the Squashie play dough for another day by putting it in a ziplock bag and leaving it at room temperature

If the play dough becomes hard, microwave it for 10 seconds to soften it up

 

Jelly/Jello Play Dough

Jelly/jello play dough isn’t stretchy like the marshmallow or Squashie playdough but it still has a nice texture. It also feels more like real Playdoh (but smells better!). I have seen other recipes where you can use jello powder to make play dough but I only had the cubed variety, so I decided to give it a go.

 

Ingredients

To make playdough using jelly cubes, you will need the following:

• 2 ½ cups of plain flour and extra for kneading
• ½ cup of salt
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 packet of jelly
• 285ml boiling water

 

Instructions

1. Dissolve the cubes of jelly in 285ml of boiled water from the kettle and set to one side
2. Add the flour, salt and oil to a bowl
3. Pour in 1 cup of jelly mixture and mix together
4. Sprinkle some flour onto a surface and knead the dough
5. Use more flour if it’s too sticky

 

Tips

You may want to add some food colouring. I used orange jelly but the dough was more of a yellow colour.

Try making the dough with 2 cups of flour first and then add in the extra half a cup if needed.

If you find the dough is too sticky, add more flour

I didn’t use cream of tartar, but you could try adding 1 tablespoon to make the dough stretchy. I haven’t yet tried this but it often works with normal salt dough recipes.

 

Lime Play Dough

Making play dough using limes will get your little ones using even more of their senses when playing with it. I didn’t want to buy essential oil to add to the playdough (because I would only use it once) so I used real limes instead.

 

Ingredients

For this play dough recipe, you will need:

• 3 Limes approx 
• ¼ lime juice. I squeezed the juice out of 2 and a half limes to get this amount
• A teaspoon of lime zest
• 1 cup of plain flour (plus extra for kneading)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp olive oil
• Green food colouring

 

Instructions

1. Cut the limes and squeeze out the juice so you have ¼ of a cups worth and set it to one side. Next, grate the outer part of the limes so you have around a teaspoon of zest.
2. Add the zest to a bowl along with 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp of olive oil and some green good colouring. I didn’t have a lot of salt so I just added in a tablespoon. 
3. Slowly add in the lime juice and mix together
4. When you can see the dough forming, tip it out onto a surface and knead it using the extra flour.

 

Tips

You may need to knead the dough for longer to make sure all of the food colouring is mixed in

I find that gel food colouring often works best because you don’t have to use as much. 

Adding more lime zest will make the scent of the dough stronger

 

Lemon Play Dough

The process of making lemon play dough is similar to the lime play dough mentioned above. Using the juice from real lemons and the zest makes the dough smell amazing.

Ingredients

To make lemon play dough, you will need:

• Juice from 2 lemons
• A teaspoon of lemon zest
• 1 cup of plain flour
• 2 tsp sunflower oil
• Yellow gel food colouring

 

Instructions

1. Add the flour and oil to a bowl
2. Grate some of the lemon skin and add the zest to the bowl
3. Squeeze in the juice from 2 lemons
4. Squirt some yellow food colouring into the mix
5. Stir the mixture until it is close to a dough-like texture
6. Sprinkle flour onto a surface and knead the dough

 

Tips

Holding your hand over the bowl and squeezing the lemon into your hand will allow you to catch all the pips in your hand and lets the juice run through.

If the dough is too dry, try to add more lemon juice. If it’s too sticky, add more flour.

The more flour you add, the less stretchy and soft the dough will be.

Adding more lemon zest will leave you with stronger smelling play dough.

It works best if you add in the food colouring before you mix all of the ingredients together. You can add the food colouring once you almost have a dough but it just means that you will have to knead the dough for longer to ensure all of colour mixes.

I used sunflower oil but olive oil would also work

Orange Play Dough

 

Making orange playdough is a bit easier than lemon and lime playdough. It’s easier to squeeze all of the juice out and there aren’t as many pips.

Ingredients

To make orange play dough, prepare the following ingredients:

• Juice from 1 orange
• Orange zest
• 1 cup of plain flour
• 2 tsp sunflower oil
• Orange gel food colouring

Instructions

1. Add the flour and oil to a bowl
2. Grate the orange skin into the bowl
3. Add in a squirt of yellow food colouring and a couple of drops of red
4. Squeeze in the juice from the orange (see tips below)
5. Mix the ingredients together
6. Knead the dough on a surface, use more flour if you need to

 

Tips

Squeeze the orange into your hands so the juice runs through your fingers into a bowl and you catch the pips in your hand

You may not need all of the juice from 1 orange so start by adding in half of the juice first. Mix the ingredients together and add more juice until it forms a dough.

If you use too much juice, add more flour

I added the food colouring once I had mixed most of the ingredients together. This helped me to determine how much juice to use. This wasn’t a problem but meant I had to knead the dough for quite some time.

 

Making Play Dough Extra Fun

These play doughs are fun to squish, roll, pinch, squash and knead with only your hands. However, adding in tools and toys will keep your child interested for longer. This magical oven, gravel yard and ice cream and pasta role play are perfect for developing your little one’s imagination.

Plastic moulds and tools help to improve fine motor skills which are needed for holding a pencil and writing.

Stamps can also be used to help kids learn letter sounds, read and spell. Most stamps usually come with upper case letters. However, I strongly believe that kids should be taught lower case letters first. Teaching little one’s capitals first confuses them when they start school. Their peg label, name in their jumper etc. will all be written with a capital at the start and the rest of the letters in lower case. This will mean they struggle to recognise their name and will have to learn to write it all over again

Conclusion

The play dough recipes in this post smell great and encourage kids to use another one of their senses when playing with them. They’re fun to make and even more fun for kids to play with.

When following the play dough recipes, it’s best to slowly add liquid to the flour/cornstarch and oil, rather than in one go. This will help you determine how sticky or soft the dough feels.

Once you’ve made play dough, it can be played with again. Most of these playdoughs will last for a few days.

All of the recipes are taste safe, meaning they’re ideal to use with toddlers who like to taste test everything.