Orange is Young: Jello Playdough

We first spotted this sweet jello playdough from Modern Parents Messy Kids on Pinterest, but MPMK is also one of our favorite blogs.  So we were excited to give it a try.  Unlike our regular playdough standby, this one is made in smaller batches.  It's a bit of a pain to have to make it over and over, but it's easier to cook.  Plus it smells so yummy, we didn't mind.  We pretty much followed MPMK's recipe, but folded in less flour after cooking than called for.  And, actually, we still thought that we put in too much.  So we'd err on using as little extra flour as necessary at the end.  Maybe a bit of baby oil would help, too.  Here's their recipe:

-  white flour - 1 cup
- warm water - 1 cup
- salt - 2 tbsp
- cream of tartar - 2 tbsp
- cooking oil - 2 tbsp
- jello - 1, 3 oz pack

Mix all of the ingredients together in a small sauce pan.  Stir until most of the lumps disappear.  Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously until it thickens into a ball of dough.  This step does take a little while.  Just keep stirring, you'll know when it's ready when you won't be able to stir anymore.  Once it has finished cooking, place the dough onto a silpat mat or floured cutting board and wait for it to cool.  Once it is cool (at least 20-30 minutes -- NOTE: we didn't wait that long :)), let the little ones knead it, adding in flour until it is no longer sticky (about 1/2 cup).  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

We used some of our IKEA silicone molds to make little candies.  And of course my army men got into it, too.  And the toothpicks have become our new playdough tool of choice.  We each had a clown nose of playdough on at one point, but then decided to turn those into eye patches.  We had a good round of laughing about that.  Seriously, how could you NOT love playdough?

we only had enough flour for three flavors.  you can bet green, blue and purple are on their way.

"heart"

rigging a "bow and arrow" to shoot the lemon shark

"um, i'm in big trouble, boss."

arrrrg!