Homemade Play Dough

I'm tired tonight and don't have a lot of energy to come up with something fabulous on my own so I decided to post my favorite homemade play dough recipe. But first, a quick homemade play dough primer.

Regardless of what recipe you use, you will end up with one of two types of play dough: the long-lasting, foul-tasting, "just like Play-Do" play dough or the short-lived, kinda tasty play dough. Both are loads of fun for the kiddies and relatively easy to make. If you're a parent with ample time on your hands, the 24-hour play dough will do just fine. But if you, like me, can't be bothered to whip up a fresh batch every time the kiddies want to play bakery...then the long-lasting play dough is your best bet.

Anyway, here's my recipe. And while I'd love to say I came up with this on my own, I'd be lying. This is an amalgamation of several recipes I found online and tinkered with ever so slightly to achieve faux-Play-Do perfection.

Jen's "I Can't Believe It's Not Play-Do" Play Dough Recipe
This will make you one giant ball of play dough. If you want, you can prep smaller portions of colored salt water and then divvy up the dough to make several smaller batches of different colored dough.

2 cups water
1/2 cup salt
food coloring
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons Cream of Tartar
2 cups of flour
scented extract or oil to fragrance (e.g., vanilla extract, almond oil, lemon extract, anise extract, orange oil, etc)

Step One:
Combine water, salt, and two to three drops of food coloring into a medium-sized sauce pan. Stir well.
Step Two:
Boil until salt has dissolved. Depending on the type of food coloring you use...you may notice it separates into small clumps. Don't worry, this'll go away when you knead the dough.
Step Three:
Remove from heat and immediately mix in cooking oil, Cream of Tartar, and flour. The resulting mixture will look nothing like play dough and will instead be similar in consistency and appearance to badly prepared mashed potatoes.
Step Four:
Add fragrance and knead for approximately five minutes until smooth. If you want to save your palms from burning to a crisp, I recommend using a Cuisineart (be sure to put the dough blade in). This will usually achieve the same results in less time and with less discomfort to your hands. Alternatively, dump the mixture out onto a smooth surface and let it cool for ten minutes or so before you begin kneading. You may find you need to add more fragrance as you go...some scents (peppermint oil) go a long way while others (vanilla extract) do not.
Step Five:
Store in covered airtight containers or resealable ziplock bags. It should last about two months if stored properly.

Enjoy!