We are still loving the orange-coloured Christmas scented playdough we made earlier this month, but I thought it would be nice to add a few more scents and colours. So for day 20 of our advent activities we made three different ones: Gingerbread (brown), cinnamon (red) and mint (green). All recipes are included at the bottom of this post.
Penguin wasn’t involved hands-on in the making of the doughs, but (as usual when somethings happening in the kitchen area) he kept check on my progress. And as soon as the first lump was ready, he sat down to play with it.
As I remember it from when I was a kid, I particularly liked to roll the dough out into long ‘snakes’, and then roll them up into more figurative things, like flowers, dogs, trees etc. Penguin is generally more into enjoying the dough’s intrinsic qualities, by squeezing, stretching, pressing and pulling it, with his hands or with various cutters and other implements. Making handprints is one of his favourite things at the moment.
I think it’s great to see him enjoying the playdough and exploring its properties, and I’m very happy that I only occassionally need to remind him not to eat it, which has been a bit of an issue before.
Recipes:
All three doughs are made using the same basic recipe, with different colourings and spices or extract added.
- 125 ml plain flour
- slightly less than 50 ml salt
- 1 tsp Cream of Tartar
- 100 ml of warm water
- 0.5-1 tblsp sunflower oil or other neutral oil
Mix the dry ingredients in a saucepan (no heat on yet). If you’re adding a spice (see below for what I used), you should mix it in with the dry ingredients. Then add water plus colouring, before turning the heat on. If you’re adding a liquid extract for ‘flavouring’, do so now. Finally add the oil (it’s not a must, but seems to help keep the dough from drying out). Over a low heat, stir the mixture until it comes together and wants to clump into something playdough-like. If too wet, add some flour (or water, if it’s too dry/hard).
For the red cinnamon dough, I used quite a lot of cinnamon, probably about two teaspoons. It made the mix go light brown, which then made it a very dark red when the food colouring was added. I put a slight bit of yellow in as well. It’s not an exact science… well, at least not when I’m doing it!
For the brown gingerbread scented dough, the spices added were ground ginger, cinnamon, and ground cloves. At least a good teaspoon of each, plus a bit extra of the ground cloves, which really gives that characteristic spicy gingerbread scent. The spices give colouring as well, but I thought it looked a little bit dull, so I added a tiny bit of red and yellow food colouring.
Finally, for the green mint, I added a few drops of peppermint extract (liquid), plus yellow and blue colouring. I used quite a lot of blue actually, but I’m guessing that the amounts requiered varies depending on what type and make of colouring you’re using. We’ve been using liquid colouring, but I’ve heard that gels generally give brighter colours.
I’m very happy with the colours and scents of these playdoughs, and Penguin’s certainly enjoying them too. I think the green mint is our most favourite, though very closely followed by the gingerbread one. Smells like Christmas!
PS. We also made some playdough mats to go with these scented playdoughs. Click through to see how we used them, and to download your free copies!
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Blissful Domestication
Sensational Learning with Penguin 
As a former early years practitioner, I love this idea #kidsandkreativity@_karendennis
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Thank you Karen! I find that playdough usually works as a great way to calm down and focus, and the scents can make it even more appealing x
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This is great, perfect for sensory play days! #kidsandkreativity
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Thank you Naomi! x
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I’m a big fan of Playdough. It’s so versatile. We often add nature finds, buttons, pipecleaners etc to it to extend the play. Your scented playdough sounds amazing. A great sensory experience. #KidsandKreativity
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Thank you Debbie! We do add things sometimes too, but could definitely do more of that. Just this week, we decorated halloween lanterns with playdough, that was fun 🙂 xx
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Play dough is wonderful to play with. I like the fact you’ve added scents to them. #KidsandKreativity
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Thank you! I think I’m a bit in love with scented playdough actually, haha xx
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I can literally smell this and think of Christmas just reading this post! I love the idea of secnted play dough with a seasonl twist, and you could so sell your mats! Thanks for linking up to #KidsandKreativity, really hope to see you at the next one x
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Aaw thank you so much, Kerry!! I look forward to the next linky, always some lovely posts in it! X
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What does dl mean in the recipe please?
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Hi there 🙂 The ’dl’ stands for deciliter, and 1 dl is equal to 100 ml (milliliters). I hope this helps? I’ve lived most of my life in Sweden, so is more used to the metric system than imperial UK /US measurements 😊x
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PS. I’ve changed it so that it now gives the measurements in milliliters instead, after having discussed it with others since your question here. I hadn’t realised how uncommon it is to use deciliters in many countries, and I apologise for any confusion caused! 🙂 x
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I def want to try this with the littles this weekend!
#KCACOLS
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Great to hear, I hope you’ll all enjoy it! We should probably make another batch of playdough ourselves as well 🙂 x
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I love this festive spin on playdough. Thanks for linking up to the #KCACOLS linky. I hope you join us again next time.
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Thank you! It’s fun to add an extra sensory as well as festive dimension x
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My girls used to love playdough but I never thought about adding a scent, great idea #KCACOLS
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Thank you Clare! It’s a simple way of adding an extra sensory dimension, as well as a bit of Christmas spirit (or other theme)! x
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I love making play dough, especially scented ones. Cinamon is a favourite of mine xx #KCACOLS
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Cinnamon is such a warming and comforting spice, isn’t it? Great to hear that you too love making scented playdough! xx
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