Muddy playdough recipe

Today we were off on a bear hunt using Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury's brilliant classic story as our inspiration. One of activities involved making bear paw prints in muddy playdough. I was asked for the playdough recipe so here it is. If you love a cup of mocha you will love the aroma of this playdough!

This is a cooked one, so allow the dough to cool a bit before letting your child have fun kneading. This makes a big batch so you could spilt the amounts and make 2 different colours, adding some food colouring to one batch rather than the coffee grinds and cocoa. Waitrose is the best place to buy the cream of tartare from as its cheaper than Sainsburys and Tesco. Have fun!

Ingredients

5 cups water 2 1/2 cups salt 2 Tablespoons cream of tartar 8 Tablespoons vegetable/ sunflower or olive oil 5 cups plain flour

Coffee grinds - a good few tablespoons - the more you have the darker it will be

Cocoa powder - a tablespoon or two

INSTRUCTIONS 1. In a really large saucepan mix the water, salt, cream of tartar, and food colouring and gently heat the mixture until it is hot. 2. Add the oil and mix. 3. Stir in the flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing between each addition with a wooden spoon.

4. Stir in the coffee grinds and cocoa powder 5. Continue to mix until the playdough pulls away from the pan and is no longer sticky. 6. Place the dough on the counter, let it cool a bit, and then knead well - this is important to get a nice texture 6. Store the dough in an airtight bag or other container at room temperature. It will keep for months