How to Make Colored Flour for the Festival of Colors

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Things You'll Need

  • 1 cup measuring cup

  • 1 quart-sized mixing bowl

  • Water

  • Wire whisk

  • Food coloring dyes

  • Wax paper

  • Coffee or wheat grinder

The Festival Of Colors known in India as "Holi," celebrates the commencement of spring. Participants in the event use colored flour to toss into the air and onto each other just for the joy of it. You can make your own colored flours for the celebration with natural ingredients found in your kitchen cupboards. Powdery flours work best, because they stay airborne longer and don't cause any adverse health problems. The longer the color stays in the air, the better the overall display of colors.

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Step 1

Pour 1 cup of bleached white flour into a quart-sized mixing bowl. Add water to the flour while mixing it with a wire whisk. Add water until the flour becomes a paste.

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Step 2

Add as many drops of food coloring as you desire. The more food coloring you add, the darker the colors will be. Mix the food coloring into flour paste until it is uniform in color.

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Step 3

Pull the flour paste out of the bowl with your hands and roll it into a ball. Lay the ball down on a piece of wax paper and then roll over it with a rolling pin. Flatten it down until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Allow the colored flour patty to dry completely, which should take about 24 hours. The thinner you make the patties, the faster they'll dry.

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Step 4

Remove the lid of a coffee or wheat grinder and feed the flour patty into it. Allow the grinder to pulverize the flour patty back into a fine, colored powder.

Tip

The amount of colors you can make is only limited by the number of different food colors you have.

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