Hellobee

Let your little ones make their own Thanksgiving pumpkin pie with these easy sensory dough recipes! These two separate doughs come together to make a yummy-smelling combination that is fun to play with and looks a lot like the real deal. Essentially this activity is part pumpkin-pie scented play dough and part vanilla cloud dough. One acts as the pie filling and one is the crust. Because we’re making two doughs and putting them together, once you’ve made a pie, you can’t really go back. But even after the two mixtures combine, they’re still a great tactile experience. Consider this a short-term activity with a different kind of sensory play to follow.

To make the pumpkin pie dough, you will need:

1/2 cup boiling water (you can make this with hot tap water, but the dough won’t be as smooth)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1-1/3 cups flour
1/4 cup salt
2 TBSP cream of tartar
1-2 TBSP pumpkin pie spice
Orange food coloring (optional)

Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet ingredients in a second bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. As you mix them you’ll see the color start to show up. If you want to add some food coloring, you can do it now. I added a couple drops of orange gel food color to get the beautiful pumpkin pie coloring.

Once a dough starts to form, knead it together. It will still be warm from the boiling water, but it should be safe for kids to touch. Just be sure to check it first.

Your pie filling is finished! Set it aside while you make the next dough.

To make the pie crust dough, you will need:

1 cup flour
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1-2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the oil and vanilla together. It will want to separate, but as long as you mix it and pour it in quickly, the vanilla will work through the whole dough.

Add the oil mixture to the flour with a whisk. It should look like loose crumbs. If it seems too dry, add a little more oil.

You’ll know the dough is mixed well when you can squeeze a handful and it holds its shape or when you can press it against the side of the bowl and it stays in place.

Now your crust dough is ready and you can start making pies!

Tiny pie tins make this activity so much more fun. Show your child how to place a small scoop of crust dough in the pie plate.

Demonstrate how to press the crust into the pan so that it fills the bottom and covers the sides.

Next, they can add some pumpkin pie dough to fill it in!

Let them make a few pies of different sizes, and perhaps they will even want to use a plastic knife to cut a slice! Just make sure they know that even though their play dough creation smells good enough to eat, this dough isn’t edible.

After the dough comes out of the pan, the sensory play continues. As the two mixtures blend, they start to feel closer to wet sand. It’s crumbly, but still fun to dig your hands into!

Your little one will love “baking” pies as you get Thanksgiving dinner ready!

To keep the recipe handy, download the printable Pumpkin Pie Sensory Dough PDF.