EDIT 15/8/22 – if this gets sticky, feel free to knead in more rice flour until it is pliable and stiff enough to play with again. It may need a LOT more rice flour to get to that point!

A terrible glutening from playdough, not long after I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, firmly established a I-will-never-even-touch-that-stuff attitude to playdough in my mind.  However, I have been tinkering with making gluten free playdough lately and am pretty happy with the results, as are my previously-playdough deprived children. Playdough toys had all sold out of our local shops, so I bought a cheap children’s baking set and it is working wonderfully. This makes enough to keep 2 – 3 children happy. Store this playdough in an airtight container as it seems to go very soft when stored with even a hint of air exposure (anyone know why that might be because air has the opposite effect on my gluten free baking!). The cup measurements are based on a 250 ml cup as equal to 1 cup.

What you need:

1 cup of white rice flour

½ cup of cornflour (also called corn starch in some countries, check that your’s is gluten free as it isn’t always)

½ cup of salt

1 teaspoon of xanthan gum

1 ½ cups of cold water

2 tablespoons of oil

What to do:

1. Put all the ingredients into a medium saucepan and whisk together until combined with no lumps.

2. Put the saucepan over a medium heat and heat together the ingredients until they reach a thick paste texture, stirring constantly until that point.

3. Tip the playdough onto baking paper and leave for 5 to 10 minutes to cool to a warm, easy-to-handle temperature.

4. Knead into the playdough a few drops of food colouring or other additions such as glitter and leave to cool completely before letting the kids have it or storing in an airtight container if your kids are more patient than mine!