Simple Kool-Aid Playdough Recipe (For a Single Serving)

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My one and a half year old wants to do everything his three year old sister does. But, when it comes to arts and crafts, he still constantly puts them in his mouth. Just the other day I fished a bitten off marker tip out of his mouth. So, playdough is always a struggle. At this point, my son has his own marked container that only he plays with, since so much of it has ended up in his mouth. So, when I had leftover Kool-Aid from our K is for koala craft, I decided to give safe to eat Kool-Aid playdough a try.

I have always been hesitant to make any sort of safe to eat playdough in case I just reinforce putting it in his mouth. But, it was actually great. I still discouraged him eating it, but it took away the stress. I will talk about it more later, but it also stopped my son from turning eating playdough into a game. This playdough was also super easy to make. After my first experimental batch, my daughter helped me make the other two.

How to Make Kool-Aid Playdough

When I first decided to make Kool-Aid playdough, I looked up a recipe. After clicking on several, I noticed that every single one called for an entire packet of Kool-Aid. Their batches made a ridiculous amount of one color of playdough. I just wanted to use up my partial packets of playdough to make a medium sized ball of each color. So, I got to work experimenting and creating a recipe for a single serving of Kool-Aid playdough. I started with this Kool-Aid playdough recipe from The 36th Avenue.

Kool-Aid Playdough Recipe (Single Serving):

Ingredients:

• 1/4 Cup Flour
• 1 Tablespoon Salt
• 1/2-1 teaspoon Kool-Aid Powder (read below about why there is a range)
• 1/6 Cup Water
• 1/4 Tablespoon Oil

Directions:

1. Mix flour, salt, and Kool-Aid powder together in a small bowl.
2. Boil water and then stir in oil.
3. Slowly add water and oil mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon. Stop adding once it reaches playdough consistency.

How to Make Homemade Playdough With Leftover Kool-Aid:

I always get frustrated when I have to scroll down to the bottom of a page to find a recipe. So, I gave you the recipe first and here are the more detailed instructions.

Dry Ingredients:

First, mix 1/4 cup flour, 1 Tablespoon salt, and 1/2-1 teaspoon Kool-Aid powder together in a small bowl. Yes, I gave a range of how much Kool-Aid to use. In a picture further down I will show you how dark of a color each amount makes. If you are making multiple colors, mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl for each. I made the first color to figure out what I was doing and my daughter helped with the other two.

Wet Ingredients:

Then, figure out how much oil and water you need. Instead of dividing it out for each bowl, I made mine all at once and then added it to each bowl. I went with the original recipe’s amounts of 2/3 cups of water and 1 Tablespoon of oil. It should really be 1/6 Cup of water and 1/4 Tablespoon of oil per color of playdough you are making.

Heat the water until boiling and then stir in the oil. Next, pour it into each bowl and stir it with a spoon. Keep adding more until it has a normal playdough consistency. I accidently put too much in two of my colors, but some extra flour fixed it.

Figuring Out Kool-Aid Amounts:

As I mentioned before, I had different amounts of each Kool-Aid packet left over. The yellow was almost 1/2 teaspoon, blue was a 1/2 teaspoon, and red was almost 1 teaspoon. To get a more vibrant color, you will want closer to the 1 teaspoon amount. But, you can still see what color the two lighter ones are and they didn’t stain my kid’s hands at all. The red did a tiny amount. So, it ultimately comes down to personal preference, but 1/2-1 teaspoon is the range to aim for.

Using and Storing Our DIY Playdough:

I let my kids play with their new playdough no differently than I would regular playdough. The homemade playdough rolled, stretched, and smashed all the same. I didn’t bother to take out any of their playdough tools, but they would have worked the exact same. Next time we will have to use the playdough mats that I made them.

I used a few small Rubbermaid containers to store the playdough. Anything will work as long as it is airtight. You can even use this creative storage method from Megan Nielsen.

Conclusion of Homemade Kool-Aid Playdough

As I mentioned, I went into this not expecting to like edible playdough. But, I actually loved it. The novelty of the new playdough intrigued both of my kids. And since it wasn’t as important for me to hover over my son, I was able to make lunch while they played at the table right behind me. My son didn’t turn shoving large amount of playdough into his mouth into a game like he normally does since he didn’t have an active stressed audience. Instead, he actually played with it. And it smelled really good!

My only complaint was the red did stain their hands a little bit, but it came off easily. While I have been saying it is edible, it still has a lot of salt in it. So, it is still important to discourage your kids from eating it. Overall, it was a great quick thing to make and we will definitely make it again. Have you ever made edible playdough for your kids?