Edible marshmallow play dough is an inexpensive, safe, and fun way to introduce basic kitchen skills to young children, as well as to entertain them for an hour or so. (Plus get your morning snack out of the way!) All you’ll need is large marshmallows, corn starch, coconut oil, and food coloring. And you won’t even need to use the stove!
Thanks to One Little Project for this awesome idea! I adapted it to fit a Play With Your Food program for twelve 2-5 year olds and their caregivers.
How To: The Recipe
For my group of twelve kids, I used 2 sixteen ounce boxes of cornstarch, twelve ounces of coconut oil (we had a spill), and 2 sixteen ounce bags of large marshmallows (about 1/3 of the marshmallows went straight to kids’ stomachs). For each ball of play dough, you will need 6 large marshmallows, 1/4 cup of cornstarch, and 2 tsp. of liquid coconut oil.
First, the kids should count out 6 marshmallows to put in a small microwave bowl. Then, they can use a 1/4 cup to scoop out the cornstarch and dump that into the bowl as well. Finally, they can add the coconut oil to the marshmallows and cornstarch. Yes, it can get a little messy with the cornstarch and coconut oil – but a little mess is okay! After the kids put all of the ingredients in the bowl, put the bowl in the microwave for thirty seconds. Make sure you show the kids how puffed up the marshmallows get! And then, add about 10-20 drops of food coloring onto the heated marshmallows. Now it’s time for the kids to mix! Start out with a spoon because the mixture will be a little warm from the microwave. Once it cools down a little, the kids can start to mix with their hands. You’ll know everything is mixed when the play dough is all one color.
How To: The Program
Don’t forget – this edible marshmallow play dough is edible! If the kids take a bite, that’s fine! I recommend having some extra marshmallows around to snack on. The kids may even want to play with the whole marshmallows as well, and that’s okay! After we made the recipe, I put out regular play dough toys for the kids to play with, but you can use kitchen items like cookie cutters, plastic cutlery, etc.
The entire process took us about fifteen minutes to get through twelve kids using six microwaves and cleaning up a couple of spills. The kids could have played for an hour with their play dough, but the Play With Your Food program is only thirty minutes long. After their caregivers convinced the kids to wrap up their playing, I spent a long time washing sticky, greasy dishes. I recommend using dishes you can throw away if doing this program with a large group.
https://www.learnplayread.com/edible-marshmallow-play-dough/