Cookie Dough Playdough Recipe

Are you looking for a creative kids activity to make a quiet afternoon more fun? This pretend cookie dough playdough recipe might be just the solution! It uses my favorite play dough recipe, with a creative twist. Kids can cut out realistic looking playdough cookies. I added beads for sprinkles and cut out felt shapes to resemble pretend icing. Overall, making playdough cookies is a creative way for kids to practice their motor skills.

To start, you need some basic ingredients to make this sensory cookie dough playdough. The list includes flour, salt, water and cream of tartar. Add some brown food coloring and small beads, and it’s ready to start making playdough cookies!

Best Playdough Recipe

• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tbsp. cream of tartar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• brown food coloring
• colored beads or sequins
• squares of colored felt

You can use this playdough recipe to make all colors of homemade sensory dough. I’ve even made mint play dough, which smelled like mint!

1. First mix together the water, oil, and salt in a medium pot.

2. Heat the mixture until the salt is fully dissolved.

3. Next stir in the cream of tartar.

4. Finally, add the 2 cups of flour a little at a time, stirring to avoid clumps.

5. Mix the ingredients over medium heat until it thickens into dough.

6. Once the mixture reaches a dough-like consistency, turn off the heat and allow the homemade playdough to fully cool.

When the white playdough is cool enough to touch, you can separate it into sections and add food coloring to make different colors. In this case, we made brown playdough to resemble gingerbread cookie dough.

Gingerbread Cookie Playdough

To make gingerbread cookie play dough, mix in brown food coloring and beads to look like sprinkles. I’ve found it helpful to dump out the playdough onto a piece of parchment paper. Specifically, I use the parchment paper to repeatedly fold the playdough onto itself to knead in the food coloring. This prevents my hands from getting colored.

Once the pretend gingerbread cookie playdough is mixed, it’s ready to make pretend cookies, using cookie cutters, felt shapes and beads!

Make Felt Icing for Cookie Dough Playdough

To make the felt shapes, use a pen to trace around a cookie cutter onto a piece of felt. Stack several pieces of felt and cut out each shape with scissors. These felt shapes easily look like colored icing when placed on top of each play dough cookie!

Making playdough cookies is a fun activity for preschool, homeschool, or even a kids birthday party. My kids enjoyed cutting out different playdough shapes and decorating them with extra beads. Rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters is a great sensory activity for kids to practice their motor skills.

These fun play dough cookies look almost like the real thing! Kids may even discover, that although flour-based play dough is technically edible, it won’t be sweet like real cookies! Because these pretend cookies use beads and felt, they’re for play only, so remind little ones not to actually taste them. Making pretend play dough cookies is a fun and hands-on activity for any child who loves playdough!