Apple Spice Play Dough

With colder evenings and apples in season it's the perfect time to bake up an apple pie. Or, save some time and mix up a batch of apple spice play dough, because we think it smells as good as apple pie.

For play group today we made apple spice play dough. With no apples anywhere in the mix, we were dubious this would deserve the "apple" in it's title. The brain and scents are a funny thing though. It does smell like apple- perhaps by association.

You will need:
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons red food coloring

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cardamon

Add water, oil and food coloring to a saucepan. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and add to the liquids in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the dough begins pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Add some fall themed cutters and other items and you have a sensory rich, open-ended play experience.