Play dough is one of my favorite homemade crafts to make with my kids. Especially since it’s so easy to whip up and brings instant fun for hours. There are a few recipes I’ve shared here before, but this recipe for 3 ingredient play dough using baking soda and cornstarch is the best! Read on for more details.
Here’s the quick and easy recipe for homemade play dough, you’ll have it ready in 5 minutes! Watch our video to see just how easy it is. Follow the recipe and instructions below to make it today!
3 Ingredient Play Dough to Make in Minutes:
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup baking soda
- 3/4 cup water
- optional: 2-3 drops of essential oils are fun to add in
- optional: 4-5 drops of food coloring
Method:
1. In a saucepan with NO heat, add the cornstarch, baking soda, water and stir.
2. Place your saucepan on the stove top and turn your heat to medium.
3. Continue stirring the mix constantly. It will start to bubble slightly and that’s when it happens really fast. It will begin to turn solid. Once a ball starts to form (4-5 minutes) take your pan off the heat.
4. Place your dough onto a piece of parchment paper or a silicone mat. Let it cool, it will be very hot. To speed the cooling process, flip it over and knead it a bit as it’s cooling down. Be careful, it’s HOT.
5. Once your dough is cool you have the option of adding in a food coloring or a scent. Option: add 2-3 drops of essential oil, we used lemon, and knead it into the dough. Option: add drops of food coloring to your desired colored, even 1 drop will give it some color.
That’s it, super easy! Now it’s time to play. Get out the cookie cutters, lollipop sticks, and plastic utensils and have some fun creating! Your kids are gonna love this.
You can add colors, smells, and textures to your play dough to enhance your play dough play.
Pin this recipe for later:
7 ways to have fun with your homemade play dough:
- Pink Peppermint Play Dough – smells amazing.
- Glitter Heart Clay Ornaments – such a cute gift idea
- Edible Play Dough – yes they can eat this one!
- Salt Dough Beads – easy and fun.
- Play Dough Volcano – this one is so cool!
- Adding Color to your Dough – great afternoon activity.
- Placemats for Dough Play – love this one.
*This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for clicking and supporting Make and Takes.
This was a disaster. I followed all the ingredients in the right order and it was left so sticky. I tried adding more cornstarch but this did not help what so ever. This is the worst play-dough recipe I have ever seen. Do not try this unless you want your hands to look like you’ve been playing with mash potatoes.
it’s super sticky. I just added more cornstarch while kneading, and turned out fantastic!
Idk what we did wrong, but ours is sticky and super soft.????? We couldn’t make molds with it and it also left a nasty film on our hands. My daughter asked me to go back to our old
recipe?
Hi Jaime,
I’m so sorry for your troubles! Could it be that you forgot one of the ingredients? Maybe you didn’t cook it quite long enough to form together? Or knead it long enough to get it to form more solid? I’ve made this several times and haven’t run into anything like this, so I’m not quite sure what else it could be.
Again, so sorry this didn’t work out. If you try it again, please let me know how it went your second time around!
Good luck!
Marie
Does it require baking after cutting them?
This recipe is fantastic! It’s very inexpensive and silkier than wheat based play dough. Thank you for this!
That’s great to hear! Yes, I think it’s such a simple recipe that has a great texture too.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the simple recipe! I’m going to make this for my daughter today!! How long will it stay softened? Do you suggest any way of storing it?
Blessings,
Helen
That’s great! It has stayed pretty soft for me for about 30 days, if kept in the fridge in a sealed container :)