This week, Roy decided that with holidays well under way, it was a good time to show off one of his favourite recipes. Kids love playdough, and it is one of the most popular activities at school and in the home. Yet, despite making loads of 'food' to eat (in fact, Mini Masterchef games are particularly popular at present) playdough is not edible, although when it was first created in 1956 it was created as a non-toxic alternative to modelling clay. Roy recently discovered a cool recipe for edible playdough in one of our country cookbooks (Robyn Nichols recipe in Nashdale Food Basket) and fell in love with it - edible and great for modelling! You could also make it gluten and dairy free - what more could you want.
When I looked in to edible playdough, I assumed that it was a relatively new thing. I was wrong. In the past, there were many recipes for edible playdough, ranging from simple fondant icing right through to some made with jelly crystals! In fact they were often used in American home-science classes for poor and homeless girls. It helped them learn a little bit about science and a lot about what they would be expected to do when they became housewives and mothers. Today not many people seem to use edible playdough, but the recipes survive and promise endless holiday fun!
You Will Need:
- 1 small to medium, peeled and cooked potato
- 2 cups of icing sugar
- A packet of plain biscuits, like Milk Arrowroots. If you want it gluten or dairy free adjust your biscuits accordingly.
- Food colourings
- Water (or cordial or essence for flavouring if desired)
Method:
- Sift your icing sugar, making sure to get all the lumps out. Any lumps in the icing sugar will make your playdough lumpy.
- Pulverise your biscuits in a food processor. You want 1 cup of very fine biscuit crumbs, so make sure to put any big pieces back in the food processor!
- Thoroughly mash your potato in a bowl with a little water. You want a nice, smooth mash.
- Add your sugar and keep mashing. Roy didn't think it would work, but just keep mixing and it will work like magic, with the icing sugar and potato creating a thick, smooth paste.
- Now, add your biscuit crumbs and mix them in until you don't seem to be able to mix any more.
- Turn the mix onto a clean, dry surface and knead it, like you are making normal playdough.
- If you are colouring your dough (see note below), add in your colour now and knead it in.
- Add a little cordial or essence, if using, to make flavoured playdough and knead it in thoroughly.
- If your playdough is too dry, add water, a little at a time, and knead the dough until it is the consistency of normal playdough.
- Enjoy!
- Store your playdough in the refrigerator and you might want to add a little bit more liquid the next day if it is too dry.
You have 2 options when it comes to colouring your dough.
- This dough works really well when it is painted with food colouring. Just use a fine paintbrush and make sure you tip the food colouring into a little bowl and throw away what you don't use - you don't want to contaminate the bottle!
- Knead some food colouring into the dough itself, just like you do with normal playdough. You can split your dough and use a few different colours if you like.