Best Playdough Recipe - Microwaves !!!

I am not a fan of store-bought playdough. It dries out fast, hard to pick it all up and crumbly, lots of dye and smells weird. So, I asked my mom, a kindergarten teacher, for her suggestion and here is the WORLD'S BEST PLAYDOUGH recipe. (It lasts forever, perfectly moist and plyable, EASY - no cooking, just microwave! Hooray!)

What you need:

• 1 c. salt
• 2 c. flour
• 3 tsp. cream of tartar
• 2 c. water
• 2 TB. oil
• food coloring
• scents/extracts- optional (peppermint, lemon, orange)

What to do:

1. Mix dry ingredients in bowl, stir well
2. Add oil, water, food coloring **I divide for different colors and add extracts for smell.**
3. Stir until smooth consistency
4. Cook in microwave on high for 3 minutes, stirring occassionally
5. Knead for 1 minute ** It's hot and so I knead thoroughly for about 4-5 minutes, very important
6. Return to microwave and cook for 2 minutes
7. Knead dough again for about 3 minutes.
   

So this round we did RED (err...pink and it was peppermint smelling!) , BLUE (which we did lemon smelling - what the dollar tree had since it takes a lot to cover up the salt smell) and ORANGE (which was Orange smelling!)

And here are my cherubs ~ 20 minutes later all playing with beautiful, pleasant smelling playdough! It was fun to work with each boy seperately for the 5 minutes to pick colors and their scent. Before that we all took turns stirring and adding ingredients. I enjoy cooking with my boys and ADORE the end product of this one. I promise in 15 minutes total you can have a batch of playdough made and ready (if only doing one color) and it will last for months (probably 6). From one hard working mom to another ~ Ciao!