These edible playdough recipes are perfect for babies and toddlers!
Playdough is a great sensory and learning experience for both babies (8 months and up) and toddlers.
I love that all of these playdough recipes are made without cream of tartar (since it’s not something most people happen to have in their cupboards).
These recipes can also be used with preschoolers to facilitate language development and learning.
10 No Cook Playdough Recipes That Are Safe To Eat!
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Jello Playdough
This recipe is mostly a “no cook” recipe as you only need to heat up the water which can be done in the microwave, stove top or via kettle.
The only ingredients you will need are:
♦ 2 Boxes of Jello
♦ Flour
♦ Salt
♦ Vegetable Oil
♦ Hot Water
Head over to Pre-K Pages for the full recipe.
Marshmallow Playdough
One Little Project has a great edible marshmallow playdough recipe (that is also gluten free).
My kids and I tried this one and it worked pretty well.
When my daughter was 9 she was able to make this on her own, it’s that simple!
But it was quite sticky at first so we tried some of tips mentioned half way through the article and those really helped.
There are many things you can add to this playdough to introduce other flavors.
For example, try some pumpkin spice or candy oils (e.g. peppermint, chocolate, lemon, grape, bubble gum, cotton candy, etc.).
These are different than essential oils and are meant for food.
I would not recommend adding them to playdoh as there really isn’t any concrete evidence stating that essential oils safe to ingest (especially for babies and toddlers).
Here are the ingredients that you will need:
♦ Large Marshmallows
♦ Corn Starch
♦ Coconut Oil
♦ Food Coloring
♦ Candy Oils (optional)
You will also need a microwave (so it’s technically no bake/cook) but if you don’t have one you can melt the marshmallows on the stove top, but you will have to pay close attention and remove the mixture as soon as things start melting together.
Head over to One Little Project for full instructions.
No Bake Nutella Dough
This recipe is so simple and only requires 2 ingredients: Nutella (½ a cup) and icing sugar (½ a cup plus 1 tablespoon).
You can find all the details at Still Playing School.
No Cook Oatmeal Playdough
Another super simple recipe that only requires oatmeal (uncooked), water and flour.
Check it out at The Life Of Jennifer Dawn. As with the Marshmallow dough recipe you could experiment with flavors by adding some candy oils.
Gluten Free Peanut Butter Playdoh
This 3 ingredient gluten free playdough recipe is super simple.
All you will need is either powdered milk or icing sugar, peanut butter (smooth or chunky for extra texture) and some honey.
You can find all of the directions at The Imagination Tree.
Edible Playdough Gift Idea
Peeps Dough
This is a good one to try around Easter since that is when peeps are in season!
If you aren’t familiar with Peeps, they are essentially marshmallows so the recipe for these is similar to the marshmallow playdoh one.
You will need some peeps, coconut oil and icing sugar, although I am sure you can substitute the icing sugar with corn starch.
Kids Activities Blog has all the instructions plus a step by step video.
Chocolate Cookie Dough Playdoh
This one is a bit more involved because it’s almost like making cookies.
Here’s what you will need:
♦ Margarine/butter
♦ Sugar
♦ Brown Sugar
♦ Water
♦ Baking Powder
♦ Vanilla Extract
♦ Flour
♦ Cocoa Powder
For step by step instructions head over to The Life of Jennifer Dawn.
You could probably try baking some playdough shapes and turn them into cookies!
Easy Kool Aid Playdough
This recipe requires boiled water, but it’s essentially no bake and pretty straightforward.
You will need flour, salt, a packet of Kool Aid, oil and water.
The full recipe can be found at The 36th Avenue.
Yogurt Silly Putty/Playdough
All you need for this is yogurt and cornstarch.
That’s it!
Smarts School House has the step by step directions and says the texture is between slime and playdough.
So it’s a bit more like silly putty!
Cream Cheese Playdoh
If you have cream cheese in your fridge that’s about to expire this is a great way of using it up.
You will need:
♦ Cream Cheese
♦ Honey
♦ Non Fat Dry/Powdered Milk
♦ Flour
See exactly how to make this tasty dough at Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tail.
Which Will You Try First?
There are literally hundreds of easy edible playdough recipes online that don’t require many ingredients or baking.
These 10 cover most of them.
Unfortunately none are perfect so you may need to play around with the ingredients to get the texture just right.
Since these are all so simple it’s also a great way to get older kids involved in the kitchen.
They can help get the ingredients together and make the actual playdough for their younger siblings.
So, which one will you try and if you have tried any of them how did it go?
Pin an image below to your favorite Pinterest Boards for future reference!
These are really cool ideas! I remember when I was little and I would loooooove to play with play dough. It’s such a cool thing that edible play dough recipes exist.
Although I’m not sure if the taste would be any good, it’s great to know that it’s a possibility for a meal. Thanks for the ideas! I will definitely try a few of these with my kids.
Thanks Evelin.
Most of these recipes do actually taste quite good. While I wouldn’t recommend encouraging your child to eat edible playdough everytime they play with it it’s good to know that it is totally safe to do so.
I stumbled upon your site because I am looking for textures for disabled kids. Anything that is squishy and may end up in the mouth is a good thing for my kids. Thank you!
Hi Megan,
I’m happy to hear that you found some good information in these edible playdough recipes. Check out my Pinterest Sensory activities for kids board. I’m sure you will find a lot of great information there as well. Not everything will be edible but still great for sensory input and learning.
I use the carrot & peanut butter recipes as a Substitute to the pill poppers that you put around pills for dogs . They love it. I love it because I know what I put in it.
Hi Rita,
That’s a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
I absolutely love your site. I spent quite a bit of time browsing through it all. I love the idea of edible playdough. I have young grandchildren and they enjoy their playdough immensely. The idea of edible playdough is fantastic. There have been many times both my grandchildren were caught with the non-edible playdough in their mouths. I am most certainly bookmarking this site to share with my daughter and all her friends. Thank you so much for putting together such a lovely site!
Thanks for your kind words Meherbani! I hope your daughter likes my site as much as you do. And I am sure your grandkids will love the edible playdough. Depending on their age they could possibly help you make it as well.
Great article! I had no idea that there were this many recipes for making play dough at home. I have wonderful memories of my mom making the Kool Aid version when I was little. We loved experimenting with different flavors for different colors. We never attempted to eat it, but loved that it had fun smells like scented markers or crayons. Nothing is cooler than that when you are a kid. I’m looking forward to trying some of these recipes with my son!
Thanks for your comment Katie. There are so many edible playdough recipes, many of which are basically different versions of cookie dough. But it’s great to know that if your child does eat some it’s ok. I still wouldn’t encourage a young child to eat the “playdough” since it’s meant to be played with.
Thank you! I had pretty much given up on finding a recipe that didn’t call for cream of tartar. I also don’t usually have food coloring in the house so I am loving ingredients that bring their own color! I gotta say though, some of these sound more like cookie recipes than playdough, maybe we can turn it into making cookies instead!
Hi Laura,
Some of these are like cookie dough but because cookie dough is similar to playdough it works well for babies and toddlers. But as children get older and you aren’t using edible recipes it’s really important to make sure kids know which ones can be eaten and which can’t.
I have actually tried the koolaid playdoh with my daughter. It was little difficult finding the right texture but it was pretty cool when I was able to get it. The only thing is I wished was that it didn’t dry up so quickly. I plastic wrapped it and it stayed moist for about a day longer. I will check out the other recipes because the store bought playdoh smells awful.
Hi Liz,
I find adding a bit of water or oil to homemade playdough revives it. You can also try keeping it in the fridge as that can extend its lifespan as well. But most of these recipes are so simple to make that you can experiment with them!
Interesting article on edible playdough. I never knew you could make edible play dough let alone at home? Playdough is great entertainment for babies and toddlers, good point you will have to teach them all playdough is not edible especially before they start school.
I had a kid in my elementary class who ate play dough and glue, he is still living but I don’t know how good his health is at this time from eating that kind of stuff ?
Thanks for your comment Jeffrey! It’s quite easy to make playdough at home and a great way to get kids involved in the kitchen if they are old enough. An older sibling can help make this playdough for a younger one.