Hot Chocolate Oobleck

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You can’t make marshmallow playdough, without making something hot chocolate-y to compliment it!

I decided to be brave and break out the oobleck again. This is a wonderful messy play material, but the occasional fling of a messy toddler hand does make me wish we could do it in a non-carpeted room!

To make hot chocolate oobleck, simply combine a copious amount of cornstarch (or corn flour) with some water and a dash of cocoa powder. I don’t find that recipe amounts really work for oobleck, because the liquid reacts differently every time, but if as a loose guide its about 1 part water to 2 parts cornstarch, give or take a bit.

If you stir it in a mug like I did, you’ll notice a sharp contrast between the process and the final result: with not enough cornstarch, the liquid is easy to stir and jab a spoon into, but at the right consistency it will be hard to quickly insert your spoon, but the liquid will quickly pour off if the spoon is raised out of the cup. Too much cornstarch and the liquid won’t pour at all, and you’ll have clumps of unincorporated  cornstarch.

I presented the hot chocolate oobleck in a big snowman mug in the centre of a messy play tub, and Ella was more than excited to accept the invitation to pour it out.

Its really hard to describe the non-Newtonian properties of oobleck, but I did manage to capture these sequential picture with my cell phone to show you how it quickly transforms. (I have learned not to take out my camera during messy play…)

On the left, I had just quickly rolled the oobleck into a ball, and if I had continued moving the oobleck it would have maintained its shape. But after stopping the friction for a mere second, the oobleck “melted” into a liquid state.

Oobleck cleans off easily — it dries to a powder, as well, so I have no issues vacuuming it up after play. This is a fun, sensory experience that is one-time use, so something to this effect usually occurs toward the end:

Will you be trying hot chocolate oobleck?

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