Pretend play is the starting point for many childhood adventures. This homemade play dough recipe can jumpstart that journey to owning their own ice cream shop.

Or they can become an ice cream pastry chef {totally possible}, or something so bizarre that we haven’t even thought of it yet.

Homemade Play Dough Recipe

Either way this homemade play dough is the perfect activity for kids. They will definitely need help making it, but afterwards the possibility is endless!

It is such a great way to promote pretend play. Pretend play is vital for child development as it helps promote:

• Critical thinking
• Enhanced Language Development
• Creativity
• Social Skills
• Planning and Organization
• Independence

And the list goes on! So how can you help your child dive into pretend play with this homemade playdough?

Create a play doh ice cream shop! This smells just like chocolate and the texture is perfect! So grab your tools, grab your homemade chocolate playdough, and a snazzy outfit and start “serving ice cream.”

Ingredients To Make Homemade Chocolate Playdough

This dough smells chocolate-y and delicious. Because it is based on a traditional salt dough recipe, it is edible, but smells MUCH better than it tastes!

It is easy to make and takes only a few ingredients that you may have laying around already! Missing some items? No problem, we can help! (This post contains affiliate links.)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Chocolate Drink Powder
• 1 1/2 cups Flour
• 1/2 cup Salt
• 4 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
• 1/4 cup Oil
• 2 cups Water

How To Make Homemade Chocolate Play Doh For Your Play Doh Ice Cream Shop:

Step 1

Add all the dry ingredients ( chocolate drink powder, flour, salt, and cream of tartar) into a bowl.

Step 2

Bring your water to a boil.

Step 3

Then add the dry ingredients to the boiling water.

Step 4

Take the pan off the stove and once it has cooled down knead it.

Step 5

Once you have a good consistency, add flour as needed. It shouldn’t be dry, but it shouldn’t be super sticky either.

Note:

If you add too much flour add a little water back.

Want other flavors of ice cream for your play doh ice cream shop? Swap out chocolate drink powder mix for strawberry, banana, or even vanilla!

Setting Up Your Play Doh Ice Cream Shop

Are you ready to set up shop? It’s super easy to do!

We grabbed an ice cream scoop, some ice cream cups and a jar of sprinkles. The kids played making all sorts of sweet treats for each other. It was fun to see the sprinkles eventually become part of the dough.

For the ice cream cups, I pulled out our silicone cupcake liners.

They worked perfectly because there are lots of them and just the right size for a homemade play dough sundae.

The ice cream scoop easily went through the soft dough.  Only the youngest child needed a little help getting a full scoop.

If you have play food items you could also use the plastic cones to make playdough ice cream cones!

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More Homemade Play Dough

We are a bit obsessed here at Kids Activities Blog with homemade play dough recipes.  If you are looking for more ideas, please check out some recent posts:

Melted Ice Cream Play Dough – The changing nature of this dough is fun to watch.

Lots of Homemade Play Dough Recipes – A list of 10 of our favorite homemade doughs for play.

Softest Play Dough…ever – It just is!

15 Easy Edible Playdough Recipes– Playdough that is fun to play with and safe to taste!

The Best Homemade Playdough Recipe…EVER– This is our most popular playdough recipe, it has yet to disappoint!

Galaxy Playdough– Get out of this world with this colorful and sparkly playdough.

Edible Birthday Cake Playdough– Want to make a fun playdough that tastes like cake?

Sweet Lemonade Playdough– It smells like real lemonade!

What is your favorite homemade play dough?