Gingerbread Playdough

They have had several types of scented playdough at my daughter's preschool lately.  When my daughter's friend gave my daughter a small Christmas present, my daughter decided that she wanted to make scented playdough for her friends.  She loves the candy-cane scented playdough at school, so she considered that for a while, but then she quickly changed her mind.  "Can we make gingerbread playdough?"  She asked.

She and I worked through what we might need to make playdough smell like gingerbread-cinnamon and vanilla were her guesses.  I showed her a recipe for gingerbread cookies and we worked at adapting it for playdough.  She absolutely loved making it!  Her favorite part was adding all of the spices (and smelling them all as she added them!)

Here's our gingerbread playdough recipe:

Bring 3 cups water, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1 1/2 cups salt, and 3 tablespoons of cream of tarter to a boil. Add 1 teaspoons of vanilla and a little brown food coloring if desired. 

While the water mixture is warming, mix the dry ingredients together:
3/4 ts cinnamon
3/4 ts ginger
1/2 ts allspice
1/2 ts ground cloves
3 cups flour

Once the stovetop ingredients are warm, add the dry ingredients.  Stir.  Remove from stovetop and let sit on counter top to cool.  Once cool, knead until your playdough reaches the desired consistency.

My kids had a great time playing with it, and my daughter was so proud of being able to give some to her friends.  We threw in a few cookie cutters as well, which she carefully selected for each friend.