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Recipe for White Play Dough

January 4, 2012 by Anna Ranson

 Make this bright white snow play dough recipe for hours of winter themed sensory play with kids!White sparkly snow play dough
I’ve been wanting to try out making bright white play dough ( or snow dough!)  for a while so we experimented with our usual no-cook recipe to see what we could come up with and it was surprisingly easy to make!
white play dough recipe
The other benefit of this play dough is that it is gluten free!
DIY white snow play dough

Recipe for bright white play dough:

  • 1 cup cornflour (cornstarch in the US)
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp cream of tartar
  • 1 cup boiling (or nearly boiling) water
  • few drops liquid glycerine (not essential, but makes it even smoother!)
  • silver glitter- optional! (but soooo pretty)

 Method:

  • Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the oil
  • Next, pour in the water (adult only if using boiling) and mix it up
  • Leave it for a little while to cool down, in which time it will come together more
  • Knead it until smooth and soft
  • Add in glitter and any scent (if desired)
  • If it’s too sticky, add some more cornflour
*EDIT*  Lots of people have commented that it worked much better for them to heat the ingredients gently in a pan, stirring until it comes together to form a non-sticky ball. You may wish to just skip straight to doing this and it should work straight away! When it has formed a ball, take it off the heat and put it on the surface to cool. When cool enough, knead it until soft and stretchy, rolling it in oodles of silver glitter to make it sparkle like snow!
Sparkly white snow play dough recipe

 Play Ideas:

  • Roll the white sparkly dough into balls to make snow balls!
  • Build snow men and snow castles and decorate them with buttons, twigs and beads
  • Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut out snowflakes and stars using cutters
  • Use it to form part of a small world play snowscape and play with penguins, seals, polar bears etc

Did Cakie want to do any of those lovely ideas I’d had for the dough? Of course not! She wanted to use her own imagination and make glitter-snow-cakes! I love my girl 🙂

And pretty gorgeous they were too. She went and found the beads and stars from the Christmas Sensory Tub nearby and added them into the dough as “sprinkles and decorations” for the top of her cakes.

Then she put them all in a baking tray and cooked them in her imaginary oven, allowed them to cool and served them up to Daddy when he got home from work!

This activity is good for:

  • Sensory: exploring materials using the senses
  • Motor Skills: rolling, pinching, flattening, squeezing to develop and strengthen hand muscles
  • Creativity: using materials to represent other things during play, imaginary play, role play
  • Literacy: storytelling and taking on roles and characters through imaginary play
  • Maths: counting out cups and spoons, measuring and quantities, full and empty
  • Knowledge and Understanding of the World: following recipes, role-play bakery, investigating change of materials from dry to sticky to soft

Cakie: 3 years 4 months
Pop: 21 months

See all our PLAYDOUGH RECIPES here

Try our amazingly fun sensory SNOW recipe here!

Follow our CHRISTMAS themed Pinterest board here
Follow Anna @ The Imagination Tree’s board Christmas Ideas on Pinterest.

Related Posts

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  • Natural Fruit Play Dough RecipesNatural Fruit Play Dough Recipes
  • Easy Gluten Free Play Dough RecipeEasy Gluten Free Play Dough Recipe
  • Natural Dyes for Play DoughNatural Dyes for Play Dough
  • Best Ever Chocolate Play Dough RecipeBest Ever Chocolate Play Dough Recipe
  • Gingerbread Play Dough RecipeGingerbread Play Dough Recipe

Filed Under: Messy Play, Playdough, Sensory, Snow, Winter Tagged With: Christmas, Play Dough, Sensory Play, Winter

« Why Play is SO vital to learning!
It’s Playtime! Winter Play Ideas »

Comments

  1. Alison @ Oopsey Daisy says

    January 4, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    I will definitely be using this for our Winter unit! Thanks for sharing!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:24 pm

      fantastic! thank you!

  2. Tonii says

    January 4, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    This is fantastic! usually we have tons of snow here but not this year…my kids are dying to build snowmen! This will be a darling substitute. Thank you!!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:24 pm

      that sounds like a lovely idea and we are desperate for snow too!

  3. Mommy Cameron | Raising the Cameron Clan says

    January 4, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    We made some white playdough just like this last week to use with the penguins my middle son got for Christmas. He asked for snow. Thanks for sharing your no cook recipe.

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:24 pm

      LOVE the idea of adding penguins! SO fun

  4. Leah says

    January 4, 2012 at 8:59 pm

    GREAT IDEA! Thanks a bunch!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:25 pm

      you’re welcome!

  5. Vanessa (Housewives Inc) says

    January 4, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    Little Moo Love LOVE L-O-V-E-S playdough, and the more varieties the better. Thank you for sharing this easy recipe which we’ll try soon!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:25 pm

      Great!!

  6. Melissa @ The Chocolate Muffin Tree says

    January 4, 2012 at 11:04 pm

    We need to make some….maybe tomorrow with a playdate!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:25 pm

      I LOVE yours that you just made Melissa!

  7. Christie - Childhood 101 says

    January 5, 2012 at 5:03 am

    Oooh, fantastic! Cannot wait to give it a go as I know Immy will love it 🙂

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:26 pm

      thank you Christie!

  8. Emma @sciencesparks says

    January 5, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    oooh, that is beautiful!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:26 pm

      thanks Emma!

  9. cookwithkids says

    January 7, 2012 at 6:50 am

    Thank you for sharing. I love this idea – perfect at Christmas time. WOuld have been great in our Playdough Gift Jars!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:27 pm

      would be a GREAT gift idea! love it!

  10. Rachel says

    January 7, 2012 at 8:32 pm

    where do you find glycerine? ive been looking all over

  11. Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

    January 7, 2012 at 11:20 pm

    Rachel, here in the UK I get it next to the food colourings/ flavourings in a similar size bottle. I have heard some people from other countries say you can buy it at the pharmacy section? Hope that helps!

  12. Michelle says

    January 9, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    Oh this looks fab! I think I might try and make a different play dough every month! I need to start making some scented ones, any tips on what you’ve found to work the best?

    Thanks xx

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:29 pm

      Hi Michelle! Any store bought flavouring/ scent intended for cooking with works really well. But my favourites so far have been the more natural ones such as cinnamon, ginger and lavender. If you look at my Playdough tab at the top then you will see lots of other ideas to try too!

  13. sarah in the woods says

    January 14, 2012 at 3:06 pm

    just found this through a link from The Chocolate Muffin Tree, and I must say this is the prettiest playdough I’ve seen. I’m going to make some right now.

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:29 pm

      Thank you! so glad you found us here!

  14. Annaira says

    January 14, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    In Italy it is called “Dido natural.” I use this recipe http://brucomela.blogspot.com/2010/02/simil-dido.html
    Now gurardo also recipes that you mentioned!
    thanks Arianna

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:30 pm

      lovely!

  15. Anonymous says

    January 17, 2012 at 11:54 am

    Just tried making this with my three year old son and it’s worked out as a runny liquid!! Where’ve we gone wrong? We used cornflour and half cup of salt and cup of boiling water.
    Harry did try adding an oxo stockcube he’d found whilst I came back to computer to check recipe!! But I rescued it out of mix in time!

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:31 pm

      Haha, I had to laugh at the oxo addition!! Hmmm, I’m at a loss as to what could have gone wrong? Was it definitely corn flour you used? Did you add the cream of tartar and the oil? Those are pretty important too. Sorry it didn’t work! Feel somehow responsible!

  16. Ishouldbecleaning says

    January 17, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    Ours is runny liquid too 🙁 My son was so looking forward to this. Maybe your cornstarch is different than what they have in the US?

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:35 pm

      Oh no!! Ours used corn FLOUR so should be a flour-like powdery substance, Very odd that it became liquid. Did you follow the recipe exactly as above? I wish I could make some for you to have! Sorry it didn;t work, but I know it has done for most people.

    • Anonymous says

      February 3, 2012 at 8:30 pm

      Found this on kitchendictionary.com:

      “A powdery flour made of finely ground cornmeal, NOT to be confused with cornstarch. The exception is in British and Australian recipes where the term “cornflour” is used synonymously with the U.S. word cornstarch. Corn flour comes in yellow and white and is used for breading and in combination with other flours in baked goods. Corn flour is milled from the whole kernel, while cornstarch is obtained from the endosperm portion of the kernel. Masa Harina is a special corn flour that is the basic ingredient for corn tortillas. White corn flour blends well with other food ingredients and can be blended with wheat flour to reduce gluten for cakes, cookies, pastries and crackers. White corn flour is used as a filler, binder and thickener in cookie, pastry and meat industries.”

      Read more: http://www.food.com/library/corn-flour-638#ixzz1lLgcxcQV

  17. Anonymous says

    January 17, 2012 at 10:31 pm

    We tried to ‘rescue’ it by having fun adding more spoonfuls of cornflour and more salt then Harry LOVED keeping on mixing and mixing! It was still quite tacky as we got it out of the bowl and our attempts at making snowmen were funny as they looked like they were melting as soon as made!!
    Harry enjoyed sticking beads and bits into it and he made a car from our ‘off-white!’ dough.

    • Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

      January 17, 2012 at 11:37 pm

      haha, I love that you experimented with it and still had plenty of fun! And I love the take on the melted snowmen, haha. I’m sorry that it didn’t work, really I am!

  18. HanaBanana says

    January 19, 2012 at 5:20 am

    Made the first batch with hot but not boiling water…bad move on my part. I learned from my mistake and tadaaa….it came out PERFECT. 6 batches later…it’s going to be a fun day at pre-school tomorrow. Thank u so much for a wonderful idea.

  19. The Iowa Farmer's Wife says

    January 24, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    We made this today and it was awesome! How do you store yours? Would it be okay in the fridge?

  20. Anonymous says

    January 26, 2012 at 11:12 pm

    Mine came out runny, too. I’m in the U.S. so I wonder if Corn flour and Corn starch are not equivalent. We saved it by adding flour until it was a nice consistency. It’s wonderful; very silky, not sticky at all (even two weeks later). Thanks!

  21. silvervisions says

    July 2, 2012 at 7:32 am

    We also made this and ended up with liquid. I left it to cool as instructed and came back to cool runny liquid lol! I’d followed the recipe faithfully and my daughters were so excited to be making play dough. So I poured it into a saucepan and stirred it for a few minutes over a very low heat – voila! Now we have play dough.

  22. Michelle says

    October 16, 2012 at 6:23 am

    Delightful dough- I made double the batch, heated in a saucepan over a low heat until it congealed- <3 <3 <3 it!

  23. Anonymous says

    December 8, 2012 at 10:42 am

    Thank you so much for this great recipe. I am going to make it this morning. 🙂 Just to let you know, you seem to have missed out when to add the glycerine in the method section.

  24. happytune says

    December 10, 2012 at 12:26 pm

    Does anyone know whether this hardens eventually, or could be baked to form ornaments?

  25. Mike says

    December 16, 2012 at 2:58 am

    From Canada. We are just making up our first batch, but are having the same problem as others above. We used water fresh from a boiled kettle and corn starch, but the playdough was just thick soup. Heating it on the pan really helped save the day! We’ve peppermint scented it for a Christmas present and the kitchen smells great. Thanks for the recipe!

  26. Tracy Katzenberger says

    December 17, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    I made this and found that I had to add more corn starch first to reduce stickiness, then I put in the pan on medium and when I kneaded it, I added a bit more. I think you could add food coloring and make a red batch and then green batch. Then put in small containers with small Christmas cookie cutters and pass out as a gift for your children’s friends. 🙂

  27. Ashley says

    January 18, 2013 at 4:36 am

    I just made this today. I doubled the batch and I will say that when I added two cups, it was very runny, but then I ended up using a whole box of corn (16oz) and it was perfect!! We had a great time today with this and can’t wait to pull it out tomorrow to play with again! Ashley-Arizona

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About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

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