How to make your own playdough

Make your own playdough at home for your child using a recipe from everyday ingredients. If your child is old enough, try getting them involved in the creation process.

This recipe makes enough for four balls of playdough. Once you’ve made the playdough, you can keep it and use it again and again. Or bake the shapes your child makes to save or hang up around the home.

See our list of activities for toddlers for more ideas to keep younger children busy.

Always supervise babies and young children during craft activities. Watch out for small parts that could be choking hazards, sharp items, and anything they shouldn’t put in their mouths.

• 250g plain flour
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 150g salt
• about 250ml of warm water
• child-friendly biscuit cutters and a rolling pin (optional)

If you’d like to colour the playdough, you can also a few drops of food colouring to the mix. This can get very messy, so put newspaper down beforehand.

1. Mix the flour, salt and oil in a large bowl with a large spoon. You can ask your child to help you with this part.
2. If you’re using food colouring, add it to the warm water. This step is for adults only.
3. Optional: if you want to make different colours, separate out the mixture into separate bowls.
4. Pour the water into the flour mixture little by little. Keep stirring until it forms a sticky dough. If you put too much water in, just add a bit more flour.
5. Allow it to cool down for a while. Sprinkle some flour on a hard surface like the kitchen counter or a table.
6. When the dough is cool, take it out of the bowl and knead it for a few minutes until it’s not sticky anymore. You can add more flour if it’s still too wet and sticky. Add some more water if it’s crumbling and flaky.

Now it’s time to have fun with the playdough. You could make shapes with cookie cutters. Or use a child-friendly knife to cut out the dough.

Store the playdough in a plastic food storage box or a resealable food bag with the air squeezed out. For dried-out playdough, snap it into pieces and leave to soak in a little water. It should soften up again soon.

If your child wants to keep their playdough creations, you can bake them:

1. Make a hole in the top so that you can hang the figures up later.
2. Heat the oven to 110 degrees.
3. Bake – smaller figures will take about half an hour to harden, bigger creations can take two or three hours.
4. Test them with a toothpick or fork: they should feel hard when they’re done.
5. Once they’ve cooled down, thread a ribbon or some string through the hole you’ve made.

Date last reviewed: April 2026

Next review due: April 2029