No Cook Playdough Recipe

No stovetop necessary for this wonderfully easy no-cook homemade playdough recipe! You’ll love making this DIY playdough recipe with hot water, flour, and a few other basic ingredients. No stirring over a hot stove means kids can easily help with the whole process!

No Cook Playdough Recipe

When you’re ready to make the best ever homemade playdough recipe, gather the following ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 3/4- 1.5 cups of hot water
• 1 tablespoon of oil (vegetable, coconut, or baby oil all work)
• 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar (if you’re planning to make this recipe more than once, I’d recommend at least 5 oz)
• liquid watercolors (very vibrant!) or food coloring (we’ve used all natural ones and these pretty pastels too!)

How to Make This Cookless Playdough Recipe

1. Start by mixing the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl.
   
2. In a separate bowl, add 5-10 drops of liquid watercolors or food coloring (below you’ll see us using the wilton pastel food coloring in pink) to warm water (start with less, you can add more water as needed).
   
3. Add the water to the dry mix slowly, stirring well (I used a fork) until it becomes a sticky, combined dough. You may not need all the water, start with less and a little at a time.
4. Next comes the most important step! Allow playdough to cool enough to handle, then knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until it becomes a smooth ball and all of the stickiness has gone. Keep kneading until it is right!
   

Note: If playdough is still a little sticky, knead in additional flour 1 teaspoon at a time until it reaches the right texture.

Which Coloring Is Best for Homemade No Cook Playdough?

It’s all about what intensity of color you want!

When we’ve used natural food coloring in the past, it was pretty and lightly colored:

Most recently, we ended up making four batches of playdough and for the pink and yellow we used the wilton pastel colors and they were more vibrant than the natural ones. The blue and purple homemade playdough was made using liquid watercolor and the colors were much more vibrant!

How to Store No Cook Playdough

Just another reason why this no cook playdough recipe is the BEST playdough recipe.. you can store it in an air tight container for about 6 months (some batches have lasted a year!).

That can be some kind of food storage container or a ziplock bag, but lately our favorite way to store homemade playdough (and slime!) has been these cosmetic jars!

Note that if you live in a very humid climate you might find that it starts to mold after a while- in that case, storing it in the fridge will help extend the life of your no cook playdough.

I encourage you to make this easy no cook playdough recipe with your child today! It’s fun, squishy, and so satisfying!

Ideas for Using No Cook Playdough Recipe

Playdough is an iconic part of childhood for good reason. It’s fun to squish and squeeze! No cook playdough can be used in about a million ways.

Some favorite playdough ideas are:

• Allowing kids to play with it during a read aloud session helps keep their attention longer- they can get their wiggles out through their hands! Well, some of their wiggles anyways..
• Add a couple of drops of an essential oil to make the playdough scented!
• Assemble a sensory bin with some homemade playdough and counters from out math stash
• Having kids make a bunch of little balls for practicing counting skills, sorting colors, plus developing fine motor skills by rolling the dough.
• Modeling something that we recently read or learned about such as characters from a book, animals, the planets, etc.You might also enjoy:
  • Simple Slime Recipe (Color Changing!)
  • How to Rehydrate Play Doh
  • 3 Homemade Paint Recipes for Toddlers

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Best Ever No Cook Playdough Recipe

Prep Time

10 mins

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 3/4-1.5 cups hot water
• 1 tbsp oil coconut oil, baby oil, vegetable oil- they all work
• 2 tbsp cream of tartar
• liquid watercolors or food coloring

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add food coloring to the warm water and stir until well combined.

3. Add the hot water to the dry mix slowly, stirring well until it becomes a sticky, combined dough. You may not need all the water, so start with less. Don't pour the full amount in at once.

4. Allow playdough to cool enough to handle, then knead vigorously for a couple of minutes until it becomes a smooth ball and all of the stickiness has gone. This is the most important step, so keep kneading your playdough until it's right!

5. If homemade playdough is still a little sticky then knead in additional flour 1 teaspoon at a time until it reaches desired texture.

6. PLAY!

Recipe Notes

Storing Your No Cook Playdough

Store homemade playdough in an air tight container (like this one!) for about 6 months. However, if you live in a humid climate you might find that it starts to mold after a while - in that case, storing it in the fridge will help extend the life of your no cook playdough!