Fun with dough

Day Nursery Hendricks County students work with homemade fun dough scented with instant coffee.

There are lots of recipes for “fun dough” floating around the web. I’m going to share one with you today because if you haven’t personally made a batch of this stuff for your children I think you will find it is really quite fun and pretty economical. I was reminded of this recently when two Day Nursery teachers created a batch of dough as part of their lesson plans for Black History Month.   Miss Marla and Miss Sheila added instant coffee to the recipe to create a range of different skin tones.  It also made their classroom smell really, really good!! Their two-year-olds loved it! If the smell of coffee isn’t your thing just add a few drops of flavor extract, vanilla or peppermint extract for example, from your spice cupboard.

Thanks to Patty Fisher for catching this picture. Here’s the recipe:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

3tsp cream of tarter

2 tbsp oil

2 cups water

2Tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 2Tbsp of hot water (you can add more or less instant coffee to get different skin tones)

 Dissolve salt in water. Dissolve coffee in hot water. Pour all ingredients into large pot.  Stir constantly over medium heat until ball forms by pulling away from the sides.

Knead the dough mixture until the texture matches playdough (1-2 minutes).  Store in plastic container.  Should last for at least 3 months.

NOTE: This recipe is made from edible ingredients and is not toxic in small amounts.  Keep away from pets.  Not intended as a food item. Please put away when children are finished playing with it.