Gingerbread Dough Recipe

Christmas Recipe for Play - Gingerbread Dough

We are back with another Christmas recipe for play!  Our favorite Christmas play recipes this winter have been peppermint shaving cream, Christmas confetti paints, candy cane rice, Christmas playdough, and candy cane puffy paint.  We make gingerbread houses every year, but so far we have only ever purchased the store bought kits.  One of these years I want to bake all the pieces and make legit houses.  For now, with the boys being as young as they are, we are sticking to the kits.  However, just because we don't make our houses from scratch doesn't mean we can't enjoy gingerbread sensory play!  Ever since we made our apple pie dough, JZ (6) asks to make a new batch with each new season and holiday.  This month we made gingerbread dough.  The best part is that this gingerbread dough recipe only calls for four ingredients!

How to Make Gingerbread Dough

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Supplies:

• gingerbread cookie mix
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups flour

Directions:  I pre-measured the ingredients and set them out on the table and invited the boys to make the gingerbread dough.  They combined everything in a bowl and mixed well.  Please note, as the photo below shows, this is a crumbly dough.  The consistency is somewhere between cloud dough and playdough.  

The gingerbread dough should be moldable.  If it is too dry and flaky add some more oil and/or water.  If it is too wet or oily add flour.

Once the dough was ready I set out cookie cutters, raisins, Dots, and peppermint sticks.  I also made a batch of white sidewalk chalk and put it into a squeezy bottle for the boys to use as frosting.  Since all I wanted was a white paint I didn't add scent or color to the sidewalk chalk paint recipe.

The older two boys eagerly started playing with the dough and making creations.  My toddler twins just wanted to sample the treats.  I didn't actually intend for them to participate in this Christmas sensory play activity, but they woke up early from their naps.

J-Bug (4) had the best time making gingerbread men and decorating them.

I couldn't help but giggle when he asked me what a gingerbread man was, long after he had made several.

The sidewalk chalk "frosting" was the hit of the activity.  The toddlers even stopped snacking long enough to participate.  

These simple dough recipe made a long, cold day more enjoyable for all of us.

This is a very messy recipe for play, so please be prepared.  Since we regularly engage in messy play my kiddos are pretty good at following the guidelines I have for them, and all of the mess remained on the table.  It cleaned up easily with hot, soapy water.  I added a squirt of Dawn to the laundry to avoid grease stains on their clothing.   Here are my best tips and tricks for messy play as well as laundry tips to avoid stains.

After making a gingerbread family, JZ and J-Bug started making an entire gingerbread town.

They worked together to make land and snow covered rivers.  They named their town Candyland.  :)

For more Christmas recipes for play follow me on Pinterest.

More Christmas recipes for play:

Candy Cane Rice ~ Playdough Christmas Trees ~ Christmas Confetti Paints