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

no cook playdough recipe

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.

No Cook Playdough Recipe Step 1

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.
No Cook Playdough Recipe Step 2

Step 3:

After some initial stiring it will look like below. Looks a bit lumpy, but don’t worry, just keep stiring.

No Cook Playdough Recipe Step 3

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.
No Cook Playdough Recipe Step 4

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.
No Cook Playdough Recipe Step 5

Step 6:

When the playdough is finished, it will look as blue and nice as the image below. Good luck!
No Cook Playdough Recipe Step 6

52 thoughts on “No Cook Playdough Recipe”

  1. It look easy, before I found this recipe I use to make tortilla dough for my grankids.
    Thankyou.

  2. What does 1 cup mean? I don’t really bake so is it an actual drinking cup or what? Help!!!!

    1. 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.

  3. 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 πŸ™‚

    1. I don’t think it will be very good without. Cream of tartar makes the playdough elastic and “doughy”.

  4. 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!

    1. 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”.

  5. 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 πŸ™‚

    1. Wow! I’m so glad to hear!

      I can imagine how they like to knead for themselves, the stickier the better I suspect! πŸ˜‰

      Thank you for your kind words! πŸ™‚

    1. I suppose so, but there shouldn’t be any need for it, since it’s very easy to knead.

  6. Does this playdough harden? I am looking for an easy inexpensive way to make sculptures at a child’s birthday party. Thanks!

  7. 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.

  8. 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!) πŸ™‚ 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!)

  9. 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”.

    1. I am looking for a GOOD recipe for my daughter to make for her kids, as they are always leaving the lids off the playdoh, and then get mad when they can’t because ” someone” left the lids off of them and they are always blaming each other because they didn’t do it it was one of the other ones that did it.. She has a 8 yr old, a 6 yr old,, and then a 3 yr old, and she lets the kids help her make things ,,if it isn’t too hard to do with kids. so can you tell me how you did yours so I can pass it along to her, she does not have a PC. Thanks ….Shari

  10. 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.

  11. Just made this with my kids and it is a great recipe – quick and easy! πŸ™‚

  12. 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!

  13. Thank you so much this is a fun and inexpensive way to keep my 3 year old son busy πŸ™‚ love it!

  14. I’m nine years old and I love this recipe! we are about to do it again. I cant wait. it will be supper fun!!!! my mom loves easy recipes! this is one of my favorites! thanks!:]

  15. I am in the Army and trying to do something new, budget cuts πŸ™‚ . I need to make 20-30 LBS of playdough that will not dry or harden (reasonable life span of a month or so?). I will be using it to form 1.25 LB blocks for training aids. Any advice or suggestions?

  16. can I ask if the dough getting wet and sticky after few days?
    as I made for my 2yr old son, and afterwards we keep in the plastic bag and a box for storage, 2 days later when we play agian, the dough really really sticky and i have to add more flour, would like to know if you have any idea why is like this? thanks

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