How to make coloured flour for the Festival of Colours

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The Festival Of Colours known in India as "Holi," celebrates the commencement of spring. Participants in the event use coloured flour to toss into the air and onto each other just for the joy of it. You can make your own coloured 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 colour stays in the air, the better the overall display of colours.

Pour 130 grams (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.

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

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 waxed paper and then roll over it with a rolling pin. Flatten it down until it's about half a cm (1/4 inch) thick. Allow the coloured flour patty to dry completely, which should take about 24 hours. The thinner you make the patties, the faster they'll dry.

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

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