Ok – so this isn’t really a recipe as such but I’ve seen lots of things to do at home with the kids stuff all over social media and thought I’d join in.

Before writing this one up I had to do a little detective work as I couldn’t find where I’d put my recipe and Google proved unfruitful as all I could find there were uncooked versions, which frankly don’t work nearly as well and dry out too quickly and, if you aren’t careful, go off!

I ended up reaching out to the original source – the lovely Nathalie, who’s is currently in lockdown in Spain (there are worse places to be in forced stay at home mode than by your own pool in the sunshine I guess!). It’s a shame I can’t type the accent (think ‘Allo ‘Allo French!).

If you want to make several colours, you are best making half sized batches for each colour rather than making without colour and adding the colour in after – the heat seems to help the colour set better and frankly, the mess of kneading the colour into the dough by hand is a nightmare!

This keeps well in plastic bags for months or until it has all been played with so much that it has ended up a brown mess! The cream of tartar is absolutely essential for making it keep.

It doesn’t matter what kind of oil you use – the manufactured stuff always had a bit of a marzipan smell so I wonder if they used almond oil. I sometimes used to add a few drops of lavender to mine to make it smell perfumed as opposed to foody.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of salt

1 cup plain flour

1 cup water

2 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 tablespoons oil

A few drops of food colouring

Method

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and mix together with a wooden spoon

Add as much food colouring as you need to reach the desired colour – it won’t really change on cooking

Cook through over a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly

You will know that it is done when, like a choux pastry, it starts to form a doughy ball and comes away from the sides of the pan.

Scrape the whole dough mix out of the pan onto a board and leave to cool for five to ten minutes

Once it is cool enough to handle, knead into a ball then cover in a sealed plastic bag – you could get the kids to do this bit!