Marshmallow Peeps: A Spring Experiment

This time of year the shelves in most grocery stores are stocked with brightly colored marshmallow peeps. I found a recipe to make edible playdoh. {Click here to see the recipe} With only a few ingredients your kiddos can create playdoh they are able to eat. Please be aware this contains a LARGE amount of sugar but in small doses it is quite yummy!

I teamed up with another teacher and in order to make this experiment possible with nearly 50 students, we had to make a few adjustments from the original recipe. The recipe calls for boiling the peeps in hot water. Since we do not have a microwave in our classrooms and couldn't take 50 students to the teacher's lounge, we brought in a roaster and placed the peeps in glass bowls to melt from the hot water. It took a few tries before we figured out exactly how to operate this but we did have success.

The recipe calls for 3 peeps per child. We had 110 peeps for nearly 50 students and still had a decent amount left over.

For 1 recipe you will need:

• 3 peeps
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil (I used LouAna from Wal-Mart. Most of the time I use organic coconut oil when cooking/baking but this works just as well. I use this brand on my hair.)
• 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar (Plus more for dusting)

To create your playdoh:

1. Melt your peeps in a bowl with the coconut oil.
2. As the peeps begin to soften and expand, add in the confectioners sugar.
3. Add more sugar as needed to reduce any stickiness and that's it. Literally, you are done!
4. We used blue raspberry peeps that made for a delicious aroma and the kids really enjoyed the taste. The coconut oil and confectioners sugar did not alter the taste.

 

**On a side note, if you notice little black specks in your playdoh it is simply the peeps' eyes. It took me a bit to figure out what was floating around. Apparently, they do not break down like the rest of the peeps!