Best Gluten Free Playdough Recipe With Hot Water & Without Cream Of Tartar

I surprisingly love this gluten-free playdough recipes that I’ve been making at home.

First, you make them without cream of tartar! (a big plus as it’s not readily available where I live).

Secondly, they store so well. After 2 months, they have retained their texture.

What is there not to love with this simple homemade playdough recipe?

Note: This recipe uses three different gluten-free flour. I don’t know much about being allergic to gluten. But from what I’ve read, if you’re using corn starch, rice flour or chickpea flour (which I use for this recipe), you need to make sure that they do not come from factories where gluten contamination (from other products) is a possibility.

There are three different recipes on this page which we have recently made at home.

Recipe 1: Gluten Free Playdough Recipe with Gluten Free Flour

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups gluten-free flour
  • ½ cup of corn starch
  • ½ cup corn meal
  • 1 cup of salt
  • 3 tsp. Oil
  • 2.5 cups hot water

Instructions

  1.  Get your slow cooker ready, but don’t turn it on yet.
  2. Pour the gluten-free flour. Followed by the corn starch, cornmeal and salt into the crockpot.
  3. Add in the cooking oil
  4. Mix well until the oil is thoroughly incorporated.
  5. Add hot water to the mixture.
  6. Mix the mixture until there’s you can no longer see a dry speck of flour.
  7. Turn the slow cooker on.
  8. Leave on high for 30 minutes then check if it’s ready. Usually, you would be able to take it out at this time, but I prefer to leave it on for another 15 -30 minutes.  If you do leave it in the slow cooker for a bit longer, turn the playdough over.
  9. After 30 minutes, take it out (It’s very hot, so be careful). And leave to cool down for 5 – 15 minutes
  10. When it’s cool enough to handle, knead it.

Observations:

The texture and feel of this playdough are very similar to the rice flour playdough below. I couldn’t even feel the coarse texture of the cornmeal.

Recipe 2: Gluten Free Playdough Recipe With Chickpea Flour

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups chickpea
  • 1 cup of corn starch
  • 1 cup of salt
  • 3 tsp. Oil
  • 2.5 cups hot water
  • optional: food coloring

Instructions:

  1. Pour the chickpea, cornstarch and salt together in a bowl
  2.  Put the pot on top of the stove and turn on low heat.
  3. Pour all the dry ingredients into the pot.
  4. Add the oil and hot water.
  5. Mix the mixture thoroughly.
  6. After about 3 – 5 minutes of mixing, the mixture will get very sticky and will start to form a ball. You’ll need to keep mixing at this point until it looks like the water is fully absorbed by the flour (but the flour shouldn’t look too dry)
  7. Leave to cool for 5-15 minutes.
  8. When it’s ready, knead it for 2 -3 minutes
  9. Optional: Separate the dough into small balls. Add in the food coloring to each small ball and knead each ball to incorporate the colors.
  10. Now it’s ready for play

Observation:

This is my favorite one of the three. It feels very much like the playdough that uses tartar especially after a couple of days or so.

Recipe 3: Gluten Free Playdough Using Rice Flour

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of rice flour
  • 1 cup of corn starch
  • 1 cup of salt
  • 3 tsp cooking oil
  • 2.5 cups hot water

Instructions:

Note: For this recipe, I cooked the playdough in a slow cooker. You don’t have to. You can quickly make this on top of a stove as well following the instructions of the 2nd recipe above.

  1. In a bowl, pour the rice flour.
  2. Add in the cornstarch and the salt.
  3.  Add the cooking oil
  4. Mix well.
  5. In a slow cooker or a pot, pour all the mixture in.
  6. Add hot water. The mixture will become somewhat goopy.
  7. Slow cooker instructions:
    If you’re using a slow cooker, mix the flour and water mixture thoroughly and then leave for 30 minutes on high. Check it after 30 minutes. Some recipes say that it’s ready at this time. I find that waiting 15-30 minutes more yields a more desirable texture.
  8. On Top of Stove Instructions:
    Things can happen very quickly when cooking playdough on top of a stove so you will need to watch it.
    As soon as you pour in the water, start mixing the mixture. It won’t look much like playdough at this time yet. But don’t worry, just keep stirring.
    Stirring is an important part of the process here. So keep stirring until all the water has been absorbed
  9.  Once the flour forms into a ball and it is no longer very wet, take it out of the pot and leave it to cool down on the counter for 5 – 15 minutes.

Observations:

This playdough recipe reminds me of the many desserts I gorged on growing up in the Philippines. It’s very sticky as soon as it comes out of the cooker.

Once cool, however, it becomes a lot easier to handle and no longer sticks to the hand as much.

This also stores very well.

Note: These gluten-free play dough recipes all seem very sticky after cooking but they store very well and don’t feel sticky at all after a day or two. Definitely, a fun activity to try and do with the kids.

Looking for more playdough recipes?