Gingerbread Playdough

Per request of Sebi's teacher last week, I have made 3 batches of the stuff. Ya'll, it makes itself. Really. Try it.

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp. vegetable oil
• cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, whatever (this gives it a brown color and makes it smell good)

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients. Play with the spices until you get the scent you want and the color. (I used about 1 tsp of each). Mix the water and oil together first, then add them to the dry ingredients and stir. In a pot, cook the mixture for two or three minutes, stirring frequently. The dough will start to pull away from the sides of the pan and clump together. Take the dough out of the pan and knead it until it becomes soft and smooth. Allow the playdough to cool and store in an air tight container.

Thank you to Mrs. Sham, a kindergarten teacher in Kissimmee, Florida for sharing her recipe.

O.k., now let me just say where I made my pitfalls.

• You gotta mix the wet and dry ingredients BEFORE you start adding the heat. Just make sure they are very well blending before cranking on the stove.
• I cooked over low/medium-low heat so it took longer than 2-3 minutes.
• If it looks wet, it ain't ready. But if you remove it from the pot and find it to be very sticky, that may also be another indicator.
• It really should end up looking just like dough.
• If you take it out prematurely and find it to be sticky, just put it back in and cook it some more- it isn't ready for the trash.
• Read the directions before you start, because as I was typing the directions just now, I high-tailed it to the kitchen because I didn't let it cool before storing it. I have no idea what effect that will have on the playdough. I'll let you know.
• OH, last thing. Don't try it. Again, read the directions. It's got 1/2 cup of salt. And it tastes really bad. Smells good, though.