Homemade Gingerbread Play Dough Recipe ~ It smells amazing!
I love all the smells associated Christmas…fresh pine trees, sugar cookies baking, hot apple cider, but my favorite Christmas smell is…Gingerbread. The smell of gingerbread baking holds sweet childhood memories, making our simple homemade play dough recipe one of our favorite Christmas activities.
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
I have made Gingerbread play dough every Christmas for the past few years. The kids LOVE it, and it smells amazing! My inspiration came from this simple gingerbread recipe. As soon as I saw this, I knew it would be a hit. I mean really, can you go wrong by combining play dough with Gingerbread men?
I love the rich brown color, the smell is amazing, and there is no need for food coloring. Yep, just like gingerbread. Make sure to remind your kiddos that even though it smells wonderful, it is not meant for eating.
The kids set up their cookie shop and went straight to work. Cutting, rolling, creating wonderful little gingerbread men.
Gingerbread is a Christmas staple in our house. We have made simple gingerbread ornaments, and even hosted a gingerbread birthday party. So naturally, we love making gingerbread play dough.
We also used this simple Gingerbread recipe to set up our invitation to create Playdough Reindeer. The kids loved this simple activity!
I recently found an adorable set of girl and boy gingerbread cookie cutters. The kids had so much fun creating a family of little gingerbread cutouts.
Homemade playdough usually leaves my hands feeling salty and dry. So I started playing with the salt to flour ratio and I love the soft texture of this simple salt reduced playdough recipe.
Gingerbread Man Play Dough Ingredients:
This recipe is easy to make, and very similar to store bought Play Doh.
- 1 cup Flour
- 1/4 cup Salt
- 2 tsp Cream of Tartar
- 1 cup Water
- 1 1/2 or 2 TBSP Vegetable Oil ~ I have used both measurements successfully and love how soft it makes the dough feel.
- 1 – 2 tsp ground Cinnamon
- 1- 2 tsp ground Ginger
- 1 tsp ground Nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground Cloves
Feel free to play with the quantity of spices that you add. We use different amounts each time, and they all smell amazing.
Easy Play Dough Directions:
- Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan ~ I like to mix the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients separately.
- Stir until your mixture resembles cake batter. It may still have a few lumps in it at this point.
- Cook slowly over medium heat, stirring constantly.
- It shouldn’t take too long for the mixture to thicken…continue stirring.
- Once the mixture forms one large “clump” (I’m sure that is the technical term) you are good to go. Simply remove the dough from the heat, and knead by hand until smooth.
Caution…let cool before you let little fingers touch it. It will be very hot at this point.
This recipe makes about 2 cups of Gingerbread Play Dough.
I have been making play on the stove top and last time I decided to put is all in my stand mixer with the dough hook. I gradually poured the boiling water in and it came out great. No more staining to cook. I am going to try this today.
Can this be done in a slow cooker? I would love to do this with my preschool class!
I would be intrigued to know too Carla. I have never tired making play dough in a crock pot before. Let me know if you try it!
This is amazing, I love everything about it! I loved making playdough for my kids when they were little, I think I loved playing with it as much as they did. Sharing and pinning!
Thanks so much Sue! I totally love it as much as the kids too;)
I made this for my preschool class by doing 5 x the ingredients. At first I thought it was a mistake because it became very difficult to mix but the end result was perfect. It smells great with just the right texture & consistency. No sticky mess! I love the previous comment on using a bread mixer instead. I will definitely do that the next time around. Thank you!
Yay! So glad to hear Lindsay. We love how soft it is too;)
How should it be stored? Fridge or room temp? Just did a test batch for playgroup in a few days. Can I make it ahead of time and store for a few days?
For freshness, store it in the fridge in a seal container. It will last up to a month however I have it last up to 3 months.
Thank you for the information and examples. this is really a wonderful project to do with the disabled children in my classroom
We just made this tonight and I love it! It smells so yummy and the texture is so smooth. This is the first time I made play-dough using the stove-top, and it really gives it a softness the other types don’t seem to have. My daughter is having a grand time with this, thank you!
I am making several batches of this now. Our first grade is doing “Christmas around the World” and I have Germany (several websites say Germany is responsible for the Gingerbread house). I am going to let them play around with some cookie cutters and ask them to imagine trying to make a house. We have colored a very detailed picture after watching a quick video on youtube. I think this will be a much easier and calmer task than milk carton gingerbread houses but jut as fun and hands on. Thank you for posting this recipe. They will love it.
I doubled it and it turned out great. First time making play dough, so I don’t have a comparison, but I can’t imagine it getting any easier! It smells amazing and feels so smooth! I was missing ginger, so I substituted pumpkin and allspice and worked out fine.