Herbal Play Dough

Torey

Mountain Rose Herbs just posted this recipe for home-made herbal play dough.

https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/homemade-playdough-no-cook-playdough-colored-with-herbal-powders?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=232676566&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_uoTTap1aYleLZzDyqpy_mAsTJ_iR7XlB1PyYSq2kMLhfU3me5x5jfGygR3jTKWbTa4e0NPW74rLHReLSDksZNRlbvhA&utm_content=232676566&utm_source=hs_email

I'm going to be teaching a Herbs for Kids workshop at a local Mom & Tot playgroup and this is going to be perfect.

dipat2005

@torey thank you for the play dough recipe. I have 5 great grandchildren and their mom might appreciate it for the kids to have something to do.

LaurieLovesLearning

I saw this recipe too! Soon enough I be making play dough once again.

SuperC

The recipe. Sounds delicious enough to gobble up after moulding and shaping, playing with it.

annbeck62

I love how this is no-cook and non-toxic. This could be a great way to have kids make ornaments for the holidays :)

JennyT Upstate South Carolina

Oooo a recipe that's no-cook. Thanks so much for sharing, @torey. I'd love to try a new recipe.😊

water2world

@torey Thanks Torey! I don't have any young ones around, but I may just make some and fun! lol

Good for you, teaching at a Mom & Tots playgroup!

Linda Bittle

Oooh! No kids here, but I'm gonna make some for me!

SuperC

These colors would also be great for coloring Easter eggs. So, I’ll be trying them out next Spring!

Torey

So here are my first colours.

These are the amounts of colourants that I used:

2 tsp spirulina powder for a dark forest green

2 tsp turmeric powder for a deep golden yellow

2 tsp hibiscus powder for a dark red (almost purple tones in it)

4 tsp cocoa powder for a medium brown

1 Tbsp crushed butterfly pea flowers in ½ cup of boiling water. Steep and strain. Use ⅓ cup boiling tea (instead of boiling water) to make purple

These were all the colours I had at home. I was hoping for more of a blue colour with the butterfly pea flowers but this is a nice shade of purple. I found another recipe using red cabbage and baking soda to make a blue shade. I'm going to get beet powder next time I go to town. Coffee might make a darker brown. I think Matcha would give a nice pale green. Of course, we could blend these, too. The hibiscus (or beet) mixed with the turmeric might give a nice orange shade.

Does anyone have any other suggestions besides what was listed in the article?

LaurieLovesLearning

@torey Nice colors!

For icing, we use:

Green: liquid chlorophyll...We've not tried spinach yet (which would not work in this case unless dried...possibly). I think spirulina powder needs to go on my list!

Pink: concentrated beet or hibiscus water. You are getting red though...I'm amazed, but using powder instead of liquid is likely key. It would most likely be similar with beet powder.

Purple: Red cabbage will give a purple

Steel blue: the baking powder added to the cabbage water gives a steel blue (pretty!). This will be used on the larger steel portions for the firetruck cake.

Turmeric for yellow.

Gold can be made with turmeric with a touch of cocoa.

An extra dark cocoa (the stuff we found at Bulk Barn is almost black) would give very close to a black shade. It worked well for giving a black look to a construction tape pattern in our cake.

Blueberry powder most likely would give a purple instead of blue.

Mixing is a great idea, and how wonderful these would be for the senses!

I can't remember any others right now, but I do think there are more!

Torey

@LaurieLovesLearning Now that you mention it, I think I have seen that extra dark cocoa that is almost black. I'll have to look for it next time I am in town.

I'm having red cabbage for dinner tonight so it will be cooked for a little longer than I normally would to get a better colour for the play dough.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with this batch of colours and surprised at how bright they turned out.

vickeym

What a cool idea. I see there are some powders I need to add to my kitchen.

water2world

@torey

Thanks for this info. I love the colors that you ended up with--so rich and vibrant!

I couldn't help but chuckle that your cabbage will be cooked a little longer---just for play dough color!

LaurieLovesLearning

This is concentrated cabbage juice

This is the same color added to icing. The first one is cabbage. The second one is with a little baking soda before it sits (it changes if it sits). Third is after it sits for a while. The third one is a bit more green than the camera picked up. You add the baking soda depending on what color you want.

Monek Marie

Natural coloring is so fun to play with. The colors can be so stunning.

I use natural colorings as a watercolor for a very natural look. It's great for outdoor landscapes.

Cornelius

I wonder if there is a way to tweak the recipe to make them into cookies? Play with it with clean cookie cutters and then bake to eat.

LaurieLovesLearning

@Monek Marie Do you use anything to make sure that the colors don't fade?

@Cornelius I think you would just have to make colored sugar cookies!

The thing with some natural colors in baking, they turn brownish instead of keeping the color. It's a matter of chemistry to get cakes to keep their color...acids & bases if I remember correctly. Years ago, I found a blogger who was experimenting with this. I would think if that particular site/page can't be found, someone else has most likely documented their experimentation with natural colors in baking.

Torey

I tried the blue one. It was a kind of steel blue when I made it but the next morning it had changed to more of a greenish aqua blue. The addition of the baking soda made it a bit soft so I added more flour.

@LaurieLovesLearning I found the black cocoa. I have tried anything with it yet, though.

LaurieLovesLearning

@torey We found that the "juice", left out, turned the aqua greenish-blue shade, but the color in the icing stayed constant. My camera will not show the color correctly, so I have no pictures.

I think a mixture of different shades of this could be interesting if one had to ice a cake with waves.

I will be interested in how the black cocoa may or may not differ from using it in cake or icing.

marjstratton

Wow, that's cool. I made play dough for my kids when they were young, but it wasn't very safe as I remember it. This sounds so much better. May have to see if my kids would like the recipe to make for their kids.