Dough D - rubber dough.
Tell me, what do you think when you hear "rubber dough"? Silly putty? Half-dried rubber cement? Sticky tack?
I had no idea where this was going, but I was hoping it was more on the lines of silly putty.
Here are the ingredients:
2 c baking soda
1 c corn starch
1.5 c water
food coloring (I chose purple)
a few drops of essential oil, if desired (I chose lavender, finally)
Which, of course I doubled, which made about 4 cups at the cost of $4.50. Not the cheapest one yet.
If you ever made oobleck, you know what mixing equal parts corn starch and water will get you. (If you don't, stop reading and go try this right now.) The instructions said to mix until there were no lumps. Here's the thing. You now have a bowl of soupy oobleck. Fun to mix, not fun if you are trying to get the lumps out. When in motion, oobleck is a solid. When still, it is a liquid. And you've added baking soda, which makes lumps. The best solution I found is to (next time) mix the water and baking soda, and then add in the corn starch. Get it to a point where you believe there aren't any lumps, and pour it all in a pan. (Add in the color and scent in the mixing, too.)
I read somewhere that cooking playdough in a sauce pan made it cook faster. This makes sense - more surface area. So I decided to try that.
This took a bit longer to cook (even in the pan) and left a film on the bottom of the pan that came up easily, but you don't want to get it mixed into your dough, or it will leave hard chunks.
Once it did ball up, I rolled it out into a bowl to cool. V. was chomping at the bit to get in on the dough action, and she enjoyed this one the same as the rest.
I, however, did not.
I thought maybe it was because it was warm, but even cooled, this leaves a crusty film on everything it touches, hands included. My skin is dry enough - it doesn't need help.
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| At least it smells good! |
What I liked about this dough: It is gluten-free. This isn't a huge deal for us, thankfully, but if you have a child on a GF diet and they like to eat everything, this dough might be worth making for you. It tastes awful, too, so even if you don't need the GF, one taste and the likelihood your little one will try it again is slim to none.
What I would change: This dough leaves a salt-like crust on everything, which irritated my hands. And just as quickly as it will dry your hands it will dry itself out. Even when cooling, it got crusty on top. There is nothing rubbery about it, which was a disappointment. It is more like salt dough than anything.
Dough E: Kool-Aid Playdough
I was sorely tempted to buy grape Kool-Aid, as I was certain it would smell like all things childhood. Given that the Jell-O playdough seemed to be leaking some color, I didn't think any moms would thank me for giving their kid pink and purple staining doughs. I settled on lemon.
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/4 c salt
2 Tbsp cream of tartar
2 envelopes Koolaid
2 cups water
2 Tbsp + 1tsp vegetable oil
Mix in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it gets clumpy. Reduce heat and stir until it forms a ball. Pour out on to surface or into a bowl to cool.
Mine came out a little stickier than most had at this point, so I added the 1 tsp oil and kneaded it in with floured hands. This dough turned out soft and fluffy! I had to add yellow food coloring as the yellow Koolaid was more of a bland manilla color, and I wanted bright! The lemon scent isn't terribly obvious, but the more it cooked, the more I could smell it.
By time this batch was done, V. had enough playdough for the time being, so there are no cute pictures. Sorry.
What I like about this: The smell, the fluffiness, and how nicely it came together after turning out so sticky at first.
What I would change: I don't know if the darker colors will stain or not. Also, the color wasn't as vibrant as I was hoping for, but that was easily remedied.
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