Christmas pudding playdough

Do you have kids in need of an activity at home? Here is an easy playdough recipe that smells amazing and is quick to make. To make it I used a basic playdough recipe and simply added spices and flavourings used in traditional Christmas pudding recipes, so it smells a lot like real pudding. Although this playdough does smell yummy it tastes terrible, so kids really shouldn’t hoe into it anyway but please supervise your kids and tell them this is for playing with and NOT for eating.

To make this you first need to make a base recipe, and then divide it into two parts for the ‘pudding’ and the ‘vanilla custard’.

Basic no-cook dough recipe

– 2 cups flour
– 4 tbsp cream of tarter
– 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted in the microwave
– 1 cup salt
– 2 cups boiling water

How to

Mix the flour, cream of tarter and salt together and add the melted coconut oil. Stir and then gradually add the 2 cups of boiling water a little at a time. Once added keep stirring until the dough is soft and resembles playdough (a few minutes). It will be very soft. As it cools down it will become more stiff and less soft. This is the first time I have attempted simply adding boiled water instead of cooking it on the stove-top (as we did in our Cinnamon Cookie playdough, but the recipe is the same otherwise) and I’ve found that the playdough is softer and has a nicer texture. This is the way I’ll be doing it from now on!

Divide the basic white playdough into two separate bowls, at a 60/30 ratio. The bowl with two thirds of the mixture will be for the ‘pudding’ and the other for the ‘vanilla custard’.

To make the Pudding:

Add the following ingredients and knead into the dough until combined. If you think it needs a little more of something go ahead and add it.

– 2 heaped tbsp cocoa (we actually used 3 but the chocolate scent was a bit overpowering and I’d recommend adding 2tbsp and a third if you think it needs it)
– 2 heaped teaspoons ground ginger
– 2 heaped teaspoons mixed spice
– 2 tsp vanilla extract
– the finely grated rind of one lemon

To make the vanilla custard:

Add a small amount of yellow food colouring (not too much or it will be too yellow) and 2-3 tsp vanilla extract

Miss K helped me to knead the ingredients into the base mix, commenting on how good it smelled all the while, and then our dough was ready for play!

As an optional extra you can cut some holly-shaped leaves from green felt and add some mini pom-poms for the berries.

My kids both made some mini puddings, and then moved on to other things, adding their own accessories as they went.

Lots of Christmas cookies were made.

…and a fun ‘froggy play land’ by Miss K.

This dough can be stored in a plastic container and will keep well. My kids have played with it several times since we made it and Miss R opens the lid and smells it every time she walks past, saying “mmm, Christmas pudding!“.

For lots more fun craft and play recipes try visiting my Craft Recipes board on Pinterest.