I must have been craving some chocolate the other day when I came up with this idea. I’ve been “almost” sugar-free for a few years now but really miss chocolate! My 3 year old son, Onetime, loves it too, but we try to keep his sugar-intake down as well. Solution? Chocolate-scented playdough (oh, and vanilla too!).
Both of these recipes are homemade and are perfect for pretend bakery play. The playdough is edible, but doesn’t taste very good at all (as my son quickly discovered!). Too salty. But that’s okay, I didn’t want him to eat it, just play with it and enjoy the scents! Oh, and me too – you know…vicarious sniffing!
Making Chocolate Playdough
To make both chocolate and vanilla playdoughs, you start with the same recipe, then knead in the scent-makers. You will need:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 Tbsps Cream of Tartar
2 cups water
2 Tbsp oil
Scent-Makers:
3 Tbsp cocoa and 3 tsp. vanilla extract
Mix the dry ingredients. Cook over medium/ low heat until dough looks dry, but is still sticky. Let it rest for 1 min. on a cutting board, then knead it for a minute.
Now that you’ve got the basic recipe, (and it’s a super-soft, long-lasting one if kept in a plastic baggie), you will can knead in the scent-makers until they are evenly spread throughout the playdough.
The cocoa takes a few minutes, but stick with it, and your playdough will turn a lovely chocolatey brown and smell awesome!
Chocolatey Play!
For extra playful fun, I gave my son some chocolate chips to press into the dough, and he got to eat a few too!
After the chips were all added (and a treat was consumed), Onetime had fun making chocolate-vanilla creations. He made lots of layered cookies.
And some lovely “chocolate-vanilla ice cream ball cookies.”
Yum! Thank goodness for low-calorie hot chocolate. I needed a mugful after this activity just to satiate my sweet tooth!
That’s it for today – short and sweet! Lol! Hope you have fun trying out this yummy chocolate and vanilla playdough with your little ones!
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Ooh, my kids would love this! What a great idea for imaginative play.
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Thanks for dropping by Jill!