How to Make Your Own Pumpkin Play-Doh

What better way to celebrate Halloween than by making your own pumpkin Play-Doh! It's actually quite a simple and easy project. It's fun to get your kids to help, and they will love pouring, mixing, and kneading the end project. And, of course, playing with the results! Here's simple, step-by-step instructions on how to easily make your own Pumpkin Play-Doh, with personal ideas and tipsf rom me on how to do it well.

What you'll need:
5 1/2 cups of flour
2 cups of salt
8 teaspoons of cream of tartar
1 container of pumpkin pie spice (1.12 ounces)
3/4 cup of vegetable oil
4 cups of water
orange food coloring
* if you don't have orange, you can mix together 2 parts yellow dye to one part red dye. For this recipe I used 10 drops of yellow and 5 drops of red to make a light brownish color. You can use more or less.

Start by getting a big bowl, the bigger the better, and either a large spoon or sturdy plastic spatula. If you want, you can also mix it directly in a large, heavy pot. If your kids are helping, have them mix the dry ingredients for you. Start with the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix it all together. I then put in the water and vegetable oil, and stirred. Last, put in the food coloring, stirring and adding until you get the desired color.

Next, transfer mixture into a large pot(or not, depending on what you started with). Turn on medium heat, and start stirring. Be prepared to get a tired arm. It may look like its never going to form, but be patient. Keep stirring, making sure you scrape the bottom of the pot continuously, too. The dough will start globbing together, and will start to come off of the side of the pot. It is suggested to heat until all the lumps disappear, but in my case, it didn't happen. Once the dough seems to be stuck together as much as possible, turn off heat.

Flour a large surface generously. I sectioned my dough off in 3 giant lumps. One good thing is that the dough did not retain much heat, it was warm, but was able to be handled. Roll and knead the dough in the flour until it is not sticky anymore, and ready to be played with. I used alot of flour to do this. The lumps disappeared more during this process than during the cooking process.

Finally, you're done. This recipe made over a pound of play-doh, so you can adjust the ingredient size to what you need. Half of this recipe would make plenty for one-to-two children. You can also use apple pie spice or cinnamon spice for different scents. Have fun, and make sure you soak that pot immediately after cooking!