Today it’s all about eating your craft! This week I decided it would be fun to make edible playdough with my girls. There are many different kinds out there, but the peanut butter varieties really caught my interest. There are a myriad of Peanut Butter Playdough recipes, so I picked the two that sounded best and tried them side by side. The results are just fascinating, so keep reading!
Seriously, making Peanut Butter Playdough with the girls was a lot of fun! And, unlike other recipes (ahem, Mr. Kool-Aid), these recipes are ones that you not only CAN eat but will WANT to eat. Not that the whole point of edible playdough is eating it…but if you’re going to stick it in your mouth, it may as well taste good. On to the recipes!
Peanut Butter Playdough Recipe #1: The Winner!
I found this recipe in several places, so no source to site
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Mix ingredients in a bowl and you’re done! Store in an airtight container or plastic baggie with air sucked out of the bag. (Quick tip: Spray your 1/2 cup with oil before measuring your honey and the honey will pour much easier.)
Recipe #1 had a great consistency! Of course, the more you play with it the softer it gets, but it was not sticky and it was just what I was expecting peanut butter playdough to be. The taste was okay. Any kid would think it was delicious. I thought it was a little too sweet, but again…it’s really for PLAYING, so it was perfect!
Peanut Butter Playdough Recipe #2: The Runner-Up
From me, Jane Maynard, after evolving several recipes I found online
- 18 ounces creamy peanut butter
- 6 tablespoons honey
- 1 1/4 cup non-fat dry milk (packet for one quart)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Mix ingredients in a bowl and you’re done! Store in an airtight container or plastic baggie with air sucked out of the bag. (Quick tip: Spray your tablespoon with oil before measuring your honey and the honey will pour much easier.)
This playdough was dessert more than playdough. It tasted great. The dry milk give it sort of a yummy crunch. It is not a great playdough for molding and playing with. In fact, I changed the recipe and added more dry milk and added powdered sugar. Before I did that, this is what it looked like:
Yeah, not so playdoughy. Once I added the extra dry milk and powdered sugar, it was workable. But still not as great as Recipe #1.
However, since Recipe #2 was just so doggone tasty, we decided to use it for something in addition to playing! We rolled the peanut butter mixture into small balls, refrigerated them for 20 minutes, dipped in melted chocolate chips and let harden. MMMMMMM. (Store in an airtight container.)
When it was all over and done with, I asked Cate if making peanut butter playdough was fun. Her enthusiastic response was, “It was REALLY fun!” No matter how the playdough came out, that’s what it’s all about!
Jane Maynard is a regular contributor to Make and Takes. She’s writer and founder of This Week for Dinner, is a wife, mother to two beautiful girls and freelance graphic designer. Jane loves eating, which comes in handy for a food blog. She is a firm believer that the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is a match made in heaven.
Written by Jane Maynard
Jane Maynard is a regular contributor on Make and Takes. She is the writer and founder of the food blog This Week for Dinner, editor of FoodPress.com, and has a great husband and two beautiful daughters. Jane loves eating, which comes in handy for a food blogger. Chocolate, cannoli, and H&H Bagels are her top foods of choice. Read other posts by Jane
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
What a great craft idea! I’m tweeting this post and also will write about this craft in my Friday “Things I Learned This Week” post at http://www.zemeks.blogspot.com with a link back here.
This is like America’s Test Kitchen for edible kid food! Thanks for doing all the work!
I agree with Janel! Thanks for finding so many fun things that are edible!
We’ll be trying this playdough this week!! Super fun!
Love the first recipe. I have made the second one for my grandchildren but they didn’t like the texture. They will love the first one since it appears to be more like playdough. Thanks so much!!
Hey nut allergic friends, you can interchange sunbutter into this for allergy friendly fun. Quick tip: you may need to add more powered sugar as sunbutter tends to be more oily than peanut butter.
Thanks Jane :-)
karen and gerard – can’t wait to see the linkback! glad you like the post! :)
janel – that’s so funny, I totally pulled an “america’s test kitchen” move! glad I could help!
michelle – they will DEFINITELY like that first recipe better. have fun with those cute grandkids!
brina – thank you for thinking of nut allergic friends (believe it or not, I am actually allergic to peanuts myself…but it’s super lowgrade…but the thought did cross my mind!). ANYWAY…GREAT tip! thank you!!!
Peanut butter playdough is always fun. My favorite recipe contains wheat germ. I will have to make some again soon…it has been a while. Thank you for sharing!
My kids love making homemade playdough…and I am pretty sure the fact that they get to eat this one will knock their socks off! We have friends coming over tomorrow after school, so this was perfect timing! Thanks for the idea with the second recipe…I will be making the chocolate dipped PB balls for me and the other mom!
Love the mat idea. Wish my g/c were close enough to have fun with them. Next year’s the reunion!!
BTW, happy National Hug Day, Jane!
“Keep on Postin’”
If you can find a powdered milk that’s not grainy, the texture for recipe #2 will be better. We used to make this in my childhood and it wasn’t grainy… just yummy!
Holy flashback! We used to make PB Playdough when I was a kid and definitely the best part was eating your little snakes, snowmen, etc. I haven’t thought of this in years, but my four-year-old twins will LOVE it. Thanks Jane!
My children love peanut butter balls. They’ll love it even more when it becomes a toy as well. I can’t wait to try it!
So excited! I made recipe #1 for my nephew. He loves play dough and it always dries out so this way I figure he can just eat it when he is done playing with it! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
simple but i don’t like honey so i made my own recipe with peanut butter, flour, a 1/2 cup of water, dark brown sugar, and sugar. i love it and my dogs love it
Made the first recipe but subsituted syrup for the honey. Worked great! Thanks. The kids i was babysitting had so much fun. We made creatures and brought out chocolate chips for eyes. They were entertained for hours.
I have been using the No. 1 recipe for a couple of years now and love it – it’s easy to make, the kids love it and it lasts! I can’t even imagine adding the powdered milk – seems that would spoil at some point. Anyway – Peanut butter, honey and powdered sugar – it’s a hit with my 3.5 year old grandchildren – try it you’ll love it!
These recipes actually work. they taste good but its really sweet. for recipe #2 i couldnt find any dry milk so i used my favorite coffee creamer and it worked great.!!!!!!!!!
glad they worked for you and that the coffee creamer worked – that’s good to know! :)
thanks so much! my little girl is playng with it now!
awww, love to hear that! :)
i hate this it smelt so bad do not try it !!!!!!!!!
I am actually someone who is very averse to the smell of peanuts and peanut butter. I will admit, the smell kind of bothered me, but not enough to not make it again. but if you are someone who hates the smell of peanuts, I could see how it would bother you. sorry about that! :)
Marie (and Jane)-
I remember reading about this last year and thought it would be fun when my little guy was a bit older (he just turned 2 this month). But i am tending my niece and nephew today and since she (Tatum, 7) didn’t have school today; it seemed like a great project. She said it tastes VERY GOOD and is very tasty! And she’s already made a bird’s nest.
Great project! And so easy (we made the first one). Maybe I will be able to get my toddler to FINALLY eat peanut butter (he loves raw dough — whether I’m baking pizza dough, pastry crusts or cookies… he loves raw dough). So I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
I’m so glad it was a hit!! thanks for commenting and letting us know! :)
I remember over 30 years ago in preschool they let us play with peanut butter playdough and it was absolutely delicious!! I have been searching for the recipe ever since. I think your #1 recipe is exactly what I was looking for. It looks exactly as I remember. I can’t wait to get home and try to make it.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!
Thank you for testing out some recipes!!!
I made recipe #1, but I replaced 1 cup of powdered sugar with powdered milk. It helped with the sweetness factor and it was still a good dough.
can I make sweet plaudough without peanut butter (or even without chocolate as we want to colour in the dough with food coloring)? Thanks
I actually haven’t found a sweet edible recipe that isn’t peanut butter. I’ve looked at quite a few websites, and it seems that none of the recipes have any sort of sugar – except for the pb version. but you could certainly experiment. maybe add a bit of honey to the kool-aid version or something, but don’t know if it will get too sticky. sorry I don’t have a better answer. maybe someone else will! :)
here’s a website I found just this week with a bunch of different recipes that you could play with: http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/
Hi,Jane, I want to use pb to stick birdseed on wooden birdhouses but the pb won’t dry even a little hard. Sure could use some help.
thanks,
Dave
damn, this tastes good!!!!
May I feature your peanut butter playdough recipe and pictures on my blog? Laral
I have an 18 month old and 4 year old who love craft time. However, my 18 month old still occasionally likes to eat her art supplies :(. Needless to say this is perfect, and there at the table playing with it right now! :)
love it – this IS perfect for your 18 month old! so glad they’re enjoying it!! :)
Hi Jane! I just love your play dough recipe idea! You were very brave to come up with your own peanut butter recipe – I wouldn’t know where to start! I hope you don’t mind but I’ve included a link to this post on my site called Play Dough for Kids. I am trying to find as many interesting recipes as possible to share with interested parents out there! Cheers! Heather
You can make theses with almond butter instead (for those who are adverse to peanut butter). It is waaay more expensive, but tastes great! I do 1 cup almond butter, 1 cup honey, and 2 cups of non instant dry milk powder. It mixes easier if you heat the almond butter and honey together until it is shiny, then mix/knead the milk powder in.
great to know, rhonda! thank you so much for commenting!
How long does recipe #1 last?
I am honestly not sure, clara. but the ingredients are pretty stable, so if you kept it in the refrigerator I think a couple weeks would be no big deal at all – honey and peanut butter can sit for a long time in the pantry, so I think this is pretty stable stuff!