Playdough recipe anyone? I tried some this morning and its crap, am hoping its the recipe and not my rubbish mummy skills!

[Flibbertyjibbet]

So, the recipe I had today from Surestart centre is 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water, colouring, 1 tablespoon cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons oil.
It was impossible to stir in the pan and when it did finally come away from the sides and form a ball as per the instructions, and cooled down, it was RUBBISH.
Sort of a bit squishy but more crumbly and its all over the house now.

Can anyone who makes the stuff check this recipe please, a cup of salt seems a lot.

Or if the recipe is right then hints and tips please on what I might be doing wrong.

Poor kiddies sat there waiting for it and then I stuck it all in the bin

Mine is sort of the same - but usually comes out ok..

1 mug plain flour
1/2 mug salt
1 mug water
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp cream of tartar powder
few drops of colouring (if using)

Put into non-stick saucepan, put onto low-medium heat and stir with wooden spoon - keep stirring and eventually it comes together.

Turn out onto table and keep kneeding for a few of mins (very therapeutic this bit).

Hmm I sort of kneaded it a bit but it was already crumbly. Like pastry thats too dry.

How long do you stir it for? Until it just comes into a ball or keep going.... but my arm was aching so much from the stirring I just stopped the min it came together!

The recipe is right, the proportions are half salt to flour.

The cream of tartar is meant to stop it eing crumbly, I wonder if yours was out of date?

Stir it till it is in a ball and then kneed it till it's smooth and elasic.

Flibbertyjibbet your recipe needs 2 cups of water not 1. I always take it out when it gets stiffish (but not necessarily a 'ball') then knead it til it looks like playdough. It sounds like you may have cooked yours for too long. And this week I learnt that having it over quite a low heat makes it nicer.

Well spotted, stirlings recipe gives the same amount of flour as water and mine only had half the water.
And yes my cream of tartar is out of date, I had to bash the lumps through a sieve
but I'm blaming the wrong amount of water
Those silly people at surestart were giving out bags of home made playdough in several colours with the recipe. Theirs was really good, wonder how many other mums round here have tried to make some and binned it?!!!

Oh yeah, well spotted Omicron, definately not enough water (should be same water as flour)

Yes it was much better today with equal flour and water not equal salt and water!

I called in at Surestart to tell them

Try this recipe you don't have to stir and stir it as it is cooked in the microwave

Dead easy to make