Gingerbread Playdough
Looking for a rainy day project, or a way to bake with the kids minus a blazing hot oven? If you answered yes, then I think you’ll love my latest project.
For the past week, this house has been play-dough central. But, we’re not making just ANY old play-dough. We’re making GINGERBREAD PLAY-DOUGH!
I’ve had homemade play-dough on my to-do list for a very long time, but I was thinking more along the lines of a fruity scent. Then one day, while exploring Pinterest I ran across Pumpkin Spice Playdough.
That’s what inspired me to make a Christmas version.
After a bit of research, I realized play-dough maing isn’t really an exact science, so I used up my favorite play-dough recipe and doctored it up a bit.
The kids and I have been making it all week. Since we enjoyed it so much, we thought it would make a perfect gift for their little friends also.
If you’re curious about gingerbread play-dough, it is just like any other version. The only difference is it’s a beautiful brown color and has a rich enticing aroma, just like real gingerbread.
It looks almost like the real thing, minus one thing…taste. You won’t have to worry about your kids eating this dough. Although it smells good, it tastes every bit as yucky as every day play-dough.
My favorite thing about this recipe is that it’s easy and inexpensive to make. You can even use last year’s spices. You know, the ones you should be throwing out and replacing with fresh ones by now…
If you don’t have the exact ratios I used, don’t worry, just use about two tablespoons of spice and it will smell great. Allspice and pumpkin pie spice are fine also, or even just cinnamon if that is all you have.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp. ground cloves
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp orange extract {optional}
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan whisk together dry ingredients. Next mix in the water, oil, and orange extract and stir until a thick batter is formed. Cook the mixture over low/medium heat until a thick dough forms. Turn out onto parchment paper and knead until smooth. Makes about 2 cups of dough.
It helps to pre-assemble your ingredients because the cooking process goes very quickly.
Begin by whisking together the dry ingredients {my kids love to help with this}, then add the oil, water, and extract. You can leave out the orange, but I like it in my real gingerbread recipe, so for the sake of aroma, I add a splash to the play-dough.
As the mixture cooks, it will slowly thicken. It may seem like it’s clumping, but don’t panic. This is completely normal. Just keep on stirrin’…
When it has reached the consistency of play-dough, take it out of the pan, drop onto parchment paper and knead until smooth.
Let cool and store in an airtight container. As long as it’s kept covered, it should last for quite a while.
My kids have spent many hours this week playing “Cookie Shop”. For some reason they make a lot of pies, but I let it slide.
It makes me so proud to see them do what I do every day. I guess they pay more attention than I think they do!
With luck, by the time they are teenagers, I’ll have a work crew!
See? I told you I had a pie guy! He’s even doing lattice tops!
And my Bellle-Belle knows how to turn on the ELBOW GREASE. Literally!
For another gift idea, you could also mix up just the dry ingredients with instructions to add the wet ingredients and cooking. I wrote them on the underside of the label.
I love it the thought that another family will share the fun we did while making our play-dough.
To keep the packaging inexpensive I recycled glass jars I’ve saved throughout the year. I decoupaged the lids and added pretty paper, ribbon, and colorful baker’s twine, available at The Twinery.
Kids can also help decorate jars. Have them glue on scraps of ribbon, paper, and buttons. You can even tie on repeat or inexpensive mini-cutters for a quick cute accent.
I hope you’ll make this with your kids and share it with others. Gingerbread play-dough is the perfect way to keep the kids entertained over the holiday season.
If you’re in the mood for REAL gingerbread, you can find my favorite recipe HERE.
I’m linking up with Thirty Handmade Days and Tidy Mom this week, and you should too!
I hope everyone has time for a bit of baking this weekend!
Made this and it smells sooo good. Can’t wait to give it to my nieces.
My son and his friend (2 years old) got together today and did this and had a BLAST! They helped pouring in the ingredients and mixing and then had SO much fun cutting out fun shapes! Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you so much for sharing this! Made it for my daughter to take to preschool for gifts. It smells and looks wonderful!!! I added some gold glitter to the dry ingredients and it looks fabulous 🙂 Thanks again!
Just made some. Check it out!
http://www.nataliessentiments.com/2011/12/new-tradition-gingerbread-playdough.html
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this is so amazing! I totally featured it on my blog! great idea!!!!!!
I shared your gingerbread play-doh recipe on my blog today. It was SO easy and a wonderful craft to make for my daughter’s Christmas party tomorrow. Thank you for sharing!
http://seedsthatyouplant.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-parties-and-gingerbread-play.html
I’m going to make this as X-mas gifts for my daughter’s friends. Do you think 1/2 a recipe could be enough for each child?
I am getting 3-4 gifts out of each batch =)
I made some of this today, I don’t know who had more fun with this tonight, the little kids or the “big” kids! Thanks so much for featuring this, this will definitely be a standby in our house! 🙂
I loved making this with my girls! We packaged one large batch for my kindergartener’s class and made an double batch for my 3 year old to share at nursery school. It smelled marvelous and I had to remind myself not to try it! (My 3 year old need convincing the old-fashioned way and tried a bite…she believes me now!) As a note, I live in Madrid right now and don’t have ready access to cream of tarter, so I substituted lemon juice in one batch and cider vinegar in the other (triple the amount of required cream of tarter). Both turned out wonderfully!
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Making this today to take to a friend’s house with little ones. Can’t wait!
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This is such a fun idea! I’ve featured it in my “Last-Minute Christmas Ideas” blog post. You can find it here: http://beanbugcrafts.blogspot.com/2011/12/last-minute-christmas-gift-ideas.html
Thanks for sharing!
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YEahhh Really I loved making this with my girls! We packaged one large batch for my kindergartener’s class and made an double batch for my 3 year old to share at nursery school. It smelled marvelous and I had to remind myself not to try it! (My 3 year old need convincing the old-fashioned way and tried a bite…she believes me now!) As a note, I live in Madrid right now and don’t have ready access to cream of tarter, so I substituted lemon juice in one batch and cider vinegar in the other (triple the amount of required cream of tarter). Both turned out wonderfully!
I loved making this with my girls! We packaged one large batch for my kindergartener’s class and made an double batch for my 3 year old to share at nursery school. It smelled marvelous and I had to remind myself not to try it! (My 3 year old need convincing the old-fashioned way and tried a bite…she believes me now!) As a note, I live in Madrid right now and don’t have ready access to cream of tarter, so I substituted lemon juice in one batch and cider vinegar in the other (triple the amount of required cream of tarter). Both turned out wonderfully!
Love this project! I love knowing what’s in the playdough in case my kid eats it plus having it smell good to make it more realistic….full of winning! I featured you on my blog round up of last minute gift ideas here: http://www.creativecarissa.com/2011/12/last-minute-crafty-christmas-gifts.html
Come check out the post ans grab a button if you’d like.
Thanks again for sharing your great project.
Cheers!
Thanks for the great idea! My daughter and I whipped up a batch today and borrowed your packaging concept. I’m linking to your blog for the recipe.
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Thanks so much. We made this and thought it turned out perfectly, stored it for a few days and by the time we got around to playing with it, it had turned into a moist, gloppy mess. Any thoughts on what might have gone wrong?
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I made this playdough this morning and it was a great success with my 19 months-old girl. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
I can’t wait to share the fun and your very well presented tutorial–very cute kids!
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Great playdough recipe, I loooove the images 🙂
I know that Spring is going to be here real soon, but I hate making cookies and having someone eat them, after all the work that went into them. I am not a business, just a person who likes to make stuff. So, I looked up all your gingerbread dough recipes, hints and stuff and want to make up all the designs I have for cookies in “play dough” and hang them on a tree in the corner of my dining room. This is what I want. I want to create the cookies as ornaments and display them on a tree. Amazing how we all are so different. I guess I can keep some cookies for the kids during the holidays, but we’ll see.
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My sister sent this to my children for Christmas last year. They loved it! The texture was perfect (I liked it better than many of the store bought doughs) and it smelled wonderful (MY favorite part!) It lasted well past Christmas but eventually we had to toss it when it got dirty and a bit dried out. I was looking for the recipe to make it again as we enjoyed it so much.
I love this idea, I’ve had it pinned since early this year and I just finally featured it on my blog as an item I want to make for the upcoming holiday. http://bandaidparade.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-are-you-making.html
Thanks for sharing!
Tara
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Just printed this off…. hoping to get in early and make my daughter some of this and some extras for gifts with kiddie pressies! Fantasic idea! Thank you! CQK x
Such a great idea..I am going to do this!
Your littles will love it!
Thanks for posting! I just made your wonderful recipe. I followed your exact instructions and it’s more sticky than store-bought play dough. Any suggestion? Please let me know as I’m taking it to school tomorrow. 🙂
You may not have cooked it quite long enough. I’m not sure if you could reheat it, or even dry it out in the microwave for a few seconds or not. I made this for my kids not long ago (and we’ve been making ornaments with it) and it turned out just fine.
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Do you store it in the fridge or just out in airtight containers?
I’m featuring your post on my website here: http://dixiedollardeals.com/?p=928 as part of my 12 days of Christmas books and activities. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank’s for letting us enjoy recipe you have. So kind Hope you & family have Happy Holiday’s..Cookie in Va..
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Such an amazing idea. Thanks!
What a great idea!!! LOVE!
I just came across this idea on pintrest! i was super excited to do this for my son’s 1st grade class because they are talking about the Ginger bread man. I just got done making it and i also came across it being sticky, so i just kept kneading it then i let it sit for about 5mins and continued to knead it. I thought i may have to remake it but i didnt have too, It may seem like it wont loose it’s stickiness but it will because mine turned out just like the store bought play dough! Thanks for sharing this idea, this will make a great christmas activited!
Oh My GOSH!!! Look at how adorable your little kidlets are!! They look so intense making their playdough! I know this post is from last year and they’ve probably grown a lot but seeing this makes me so happy! You have beautiful children Callye. I’ll bet Christmas is a wonderful and magical time at your house 🙂
Oh my goodness this is the most wonderful idea ever! Thank you!
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hey! I was wondering. Pumpkin pie spice has everything in it but the cloves, could we substitute all of the spices for the pumpkin pie spice and if so, how much do you think??
Thanks so much! you rock!!
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How much play-doh does this recipe make? I am making this for 17 preschool children. Also, what size were the jars that you used?
Thanks!
What a fabulous idea!! I’m going to make some tonight. TFS
Is it possible to overcook? 🙁 my first batch came out perfect, second batch I was trying to do too many things at once and… long story short, it is darker and a bit drier feeling. Should I toss this batch or do you think it will get better as it sits? Thank you!
If you are gifting this be careful in using cinnamon as it can irritate sensitive skin and little eyes. 🙂
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This turned out fantastic. Made it for my son’s preschool class and it was a huge hit. Smells marvelous and so perfect for Christmas. Thanks so much! Also so great to find a use for those year old spices! Hurray!
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Where did you get the little pie pans, so cute!!
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Can this be used to make dough ornaments? Will it dry and get hard if it’s left out? I think it would make cute gingerbread boy ornaments to decorate.
It can, but I like this recipe too =) http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Other/Cinnamon-Ornaments
I love the playdough gift idea! I just worry about glass jars breaking in the hands of small children.
They have some really cute plastic containers at Dollar General that work well. That’s what I used for classroom gifts. I gave the glass jars in gift baskets I packed for the neighbors, so I knew it would be supervised by mom, but you’re absolutely right. I didn’t trust forty small hands with glass jars.
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Hi! Love this idea and I love how you did the jars. Just out of curiosity what did you use to wrap the lids?
Is it a general rule that I can always use less cream of tartar, if I use more oil and more salt?
I just made my first batch of homemade play dough, and it isn’t nearly enough for the advent gifts we are making. I used a peppermint play dough recipe that calls for the same measurements of flour and water as your gingerbread recipe, but with less salt and oil, and more cream of tartar. I’m about to go back to the store to purchase more cream of tartar (a double batch used the entire small container I bought for this project). I just want to be sure that my reasoning is correct. If I duplicate your recipe with only 2tsp of cream of tartar, rather than 2 tbsp per batch, I won’t have to buy so much of that single, more expensive, ingredient. Thank you for all the help!
Hi Naomi. You can buy Cream of Tartar in bulk for a lot less, than the little containers in the grocery spice aisle. If you have time, you can order from Amazon. I think I got a pound for about $14-16. You can also try at a local craft store like Michaels, or even a grocery store that has a big bulk section (I’m in northern CA and I think that Knob Hill Groceries carries it, but I don’t know their pricing.) Good luck!
The recipe looks great! I’m making a double batch right now to send in to my kids’ schools.
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I worked in daycare for years and have two not so small now boys of my own and this is the best playdough recipe ever. I recognized it when I saw it and had to put a plug in for it. It is so wonderful to knead when warm too! No need to have extra flour for gooey play dough around with this one. Good pressie idea too.
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