No Cook Playdough Recipe
This is the easiest playdough recipe. Don’t want to cook your playdough? Don’t worry, we’ve got a recipe for that! This no cook playdough works nearly as well as cooked playdough and you don’t need a stove at all (well, you need something to boil the water on/in)!
No Cook Playdough Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup of salt
- 1 tablespoon of oil
Directions:
- Simply mix all the ingredients together!
- Be careful as it can be quite hot.
This is as simple as a playdough recipe will ever get. Mix together and enjoy!
Extended directions for No Cook Playdough Recipe
This playdough recipe doesn’t end with you cooking it in a pan, you do however need boiling (or close to) water when making it.
Step 1:
I began by collecting all the ingredients. The flour, salt, water, oil, cream of tartar and food coloring. The food coloring is optional but it makes the finished playdough look more fun.
Step 2:
Pour all ingredients into a bowl, except for the water. Like the image below. When the water is boiling, add that too. You don’t have to be careful, just add all at once.
Step 3:
After some initial stiring it will look like below. Looks a bit lumpy, but don’t worry, just keep stiring.
Step 4:
After some more stiring the lumps are gone and you should basically have some finished playdough. This attempt wasn’t 100% successful though, since the playdough is way too sticky.
Step 5:
If you thought this batch of playdough was lost, think again, we can easily solve the problem with sticky playdough. We just add some more flour and knead for a few seconds.
Step 6:
When the playdough is finished, it will look as blue and nice as the image below. Good luck!
(16 votes, average: 3.88 out of 5)
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34 Comments. 
It look easy, before I found this recipe I use to make tortilla dough for my grankids.
Thankyou.
It is very easy, give it a try!
I’ve never tried tortilla dough, want to share?
What does 1 cup mean? I don’t really bake so is it an actual drinking cup or what? Help!!!!
No worries Marsha, I’ll explain.
1 cup is a common measure and it’s the same amount as 16 tablespoons. In 1 tablespoon you have 3 teaspoons.
Let me know if anything is unclear.
Marsha, if u have a glass measuring cup then u will see there’s 1 and 2 cups (depending on which one u use) if you a set of little cups look for the one with 1 printed on it
Tell me if it helped
I really love this recipe for playdough it is fun and quick!!:)
It sure is! Very simple but still a good playdough.
is the cream of tartar neccessary or can the no cook mixture be made without it?
I don’t think it will be very good without. Cream of tartar makes the playdough elastic and “doughy”.
Tried the Microwave recipie very fun and easy!
Glad to hear!
I’m thinking this would be a quick recipe for me to whip up for a Sunday School craft. How long does it keep? How should I store it so the kids can work with it in a couple of days? Thanks!
Keep it airtight in the fridge. It should be good for 1-2 weeks. As long as it smells ok and the texture is “playdoughy”.
I teach 2-year-old preschool and we love this recipe! It’s safe and easy for the kids to help make in the classroom. We even split the final dough up and gave each child a small portion last time, they got to choose what kind(s) of food color they wanted in their piece. They loved kneading the colors in themselves! We just keep the playdough in one of those gladware or ziplock brand plastic containers in a cabinet and it lasts a long time. Our last batch was almost a month ago and we’re still using it! Getting ready to make some more this week, but only because it’s getting dirty (they’re 2 and drop everything on the floor haha) the texture of it is still great! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, it’s getting laminated and put in a binder of great activities for safe keeping
Wow! I’m so glad to hear!
I can imagine how they like to knead for themselves, the stickier the better I suspect!
Thank you for your kind words!
do you use cooking oil or vegetable oil?
I’ve used vegetable oil, but both should do the work.
Can you use an electric beater for tis recipe?
I suppose so, but there shouldn’t be any need for it, since it’s very easy to knead.
Does this playdough harden? I am looking for an easy inexpensive way to make sculptures at a child’s birthday party. Thanks!
I tripled this batch and it worked out great! Then I made 5 triple batches…all of them turned out wonderful…separated them into 5 different colors and 40 different bags. Super recipe.
Wow! Sounds like a factory! Hehe
It does, but it will crack a bit.
Thank you! Our 2.5 year old daughter has been asking to bake cookies. We finally realized that she didn’t really wanted to eat the cookies, just play in the dough, so this recipe saved our kitchen (and my sanity!)
Now she can make play cookies all day, every day, if she wants, and the loving adults in her life are not being force-fed cookies. (Mine did turn out a little sticky and I had to add more flour as well. Thanks for the tip!)
Glad to hear I could help!
I make play dough on a regular basis but have never used cream of tartar, it works both ways but I’m excited to see what happens when I do add it! I use my dehydrator and a spray sealant after they have dried for the “master pieces”.
Cool! Could you add a link to the dehydrator and a spray sealant you’re using?
Are you sure its 1 cup flour to 1 cup water? Mine was really watery. I had to add quite a bit more flour. otherwise turned out great.
It’s always worked for me, but definately noted, thank you.
Just made this with my kids and it is a great recipe – quick and easy!
Great! I bet they enjoyed it!
Thank you so much! This is an awesome reciepe! I just made this and it took about 5 minutes!
Works great! We keep ours in the fridge and it lasts over a month. Just made a few batches for my Daughter’s second birthday party and I know it will be a hit!
Nice! It will definately be a hit