Gingerbread Playdough

Mommy Craft

I thought what a fun experience it would be to make a "sensory" activity for this week, since party of gingerbread's appeal is its smell.

I found a recipe to home-make gingerbread play dough, but with my hands full, I thought "how about I just add the spices to bough play dough?' Well, if you were thinking the same thing--it works just fine!
I had a can of unopened white play dough and was sad to discover I didn't have the spices I needed for gingerbread! So, I went with cinnamon--close enough, right?

Next time I will not only stock up on the spices, I will buy brown play dough, that will make it look even more like gingerbread dough.

To make this craft you will need:
(if you want to cheat like me):

• 1 can of play dough
• Spices: Cinnamon, Allspice, Ginger & Nutmeg (apparently you kind of mix until you get the right "smell."

(if you want to make it from scratch):

1 Cup flour
1/2 Cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tsp. vegetable oil
Spices--Cinnamon, Allspice, Ginger, Nutmeg
*Green and Red food coloring to make Brown (optional--the spices usually
give the dough a good Brown color.)

DIRECTIONS--
1. Mix the dry ingredients. Experiment with the spices until you get
a scent and color that you like.
2. Mix water and oil together first and then add them to the dry ingredients
and stir.
3. In a pot, cook the mixture for three to five minutes on low/medium, stirring
constantly.
4. The dough will start to pull away from the sides of the pot and
stick together in a large ball. I take it out of the pan when I see a VERY faint
brown skin on the dough one each side when I flip it.
5. Take the dough out of the pan and knead the dough until it becomes soft
and smooth.
6. Allow the dough to cool and then store it in an airtight container.

Total time to make dough: 10 minutes. This is a very quick and easy recipe and the dough turns out great! 1 batch makes about the same amount as you would find in one small tub of store bought play dough.