Of course, the laziest thing to do is to actually buy playdoh, but the shelves in the toy section at Target were annoyingly mislabeled last time I was there, and I thought C would enjoy actually making some. Do I actually know how to make playdoh? Well no, but that’s what the internets are for.

During my research I discovered that many of you actually cook your playdoh, using elaborate recipes with several ingredients, including oil, cream of tartar (what the hell is that anyway?), and “coconut essence or other essence so it smells nice.”

Yeah, we’re not going to be doing that.

Here’s the “life is too short to cook something you’re not actually going to eat” version that C and I made this morning:

lazy mom’s playdoh
1 c. flour (plus more in reserve)
1/2 c. salt
1/2 c. almost-hot tap water
optional: box of food coloring you found buried in the back of the spice cabinet.
Bonus lazy-mom points if it’s an incredibly old box, yet curiously unopened.

1. Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl. Have your toddler mix it herself.


2. Add water slowly, mixing after each addition.


3. Begin kneading the dough, adding additional flour as needed.


4. Knead some more. Feel the dough growing thicker and more elastic, and think about all those episodes of Good Eats you’ve watched about the physical properties of wheat gluten, yet you still can’t explain why dough gets this way with vigorous kneading.


5. During the kneading process, add several drops of food coloring. Ignore splotches on your hands. They will wash out.

Suggestions for play:

Eschew the pre-packaged Playdoh-brand fun factory. It’s too late for that anyway. Rummage through your kitchen cabinets instead.

Find a honey server, pizza cutter, and fork; wonder where the cookie cutters are, then settle for a plain round biscuit cutter.

Remember fondly the Playdoh barber set from your childhood. Oh, wait a minute. Your cheap parents never bought you one! Grrrr!

Pull the garlic press from last night’s dinner out of the dishwasher. Wash it by hand and marvel at your maternal brilliance.

Spend the next hour making tiny balls of doh so your child can make “chicken noodle soup” with the garlic press and serve it to you. She may urge you to hold hands and sing a mealtime blessing before each course. She may also require you to wear a bib.

Note to self: It’s a good thing you didn’t include coconut essence, because the dough now smells like garlic.

Additional note to self: the rigatoni mold from your pasta machine makes a nice snowflake pattern in the doh, but the doh is too elastic to actually extrude.

Store doh in an airtight container, and wonder whether it’s going to go bad in a day or two. Wonder again what cream of tartar is and whether it has preservative properties.