Playdough

 Turtle has been doing a lot of imaginative play cooking recently, so I decided I would introduce playdough to her again.  When I did my Montessori certification training, I received an amazing recipe for cooked playdough.  Sadly, this recipe was lost in the flood.  Luckily I found one online that produced the most amazingly smooth playdough I have ever used!  I changed it up a bit & used my Kitchenaid to do the kneading.  I'm not sure if it was the Kitchenaid or the essential oil I added that got such fantastic results -I guess I'll have to try a batch by hand to see if it is grainy or not.  At any rate, this came together so quickly & easily I'm sure it will become a favorite recipe to make in the classroom with my students!

Materials:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 cup water
2 Tbsp oil
food coloring
optional: immitation vanilla extract or essential oil

Method:

Combine in a sauce pan the flour, salt & cream of tartar.  In another bowl, whisk together the water, food coloring (I used paste this time) & oil.  Pour into sauce pan.  Stir until it nearly comes together & add the vanilla if using.

Finishing by hand:
     Put on clean surface & let cool a bit, then knead until smooth.  I would consider wearing gloves if adding essential oil at this point, I would be afraid of not being able to wash the scent out afterwards!  Wearing gloves helps to start kneading the dough while it is still hot as well.


Finishing by stand mixer:
     As soon as it comes together  put it in the bowl  & add 15 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil (I did this rather than using vanilla).  Use the dough hook to knead it until  cool enough to handle. 

Store in an airtight container.

I Heart My KitchenAid

Maybe I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE my KitchenAid.  I saved my pennies for 2 years in order to get the model I wanted.  I smile every time I walk past it.  Its beautiful.  Its shiny.  It also doesn't get used as much as it deserves.  Soon it will be too hot to bake anything, but that's OK.  We have the amazing ice cream attachment bowl, so my beloved KA will soon be producing frozen goodies.

Tonight I'm going to rectify the situation by making foccacia and turn it into pizza crusts!  My goal is to create something like Boboli bread.  I love how the Boboli breads fit into my toaster oven because it means I can make pizza without heating up my whole kitchen.  Besides, it is time that Turtle experienced the making of a pizza.  I got extra mushrooms because I know she'll eat a bunch BEFORE they make it to the pizza!