Making Mochi

Saturday morning, the drum group got together to make an excessive amount of mochi to throw to the crowds on Sunday. Mochi is make of rice soaked in water, which is steamed, then pounded into a dough. You can make mochi the traditional way with a hammer, but since we had so much to make, we used a machine to make the dough. Ah, technology. Once made, mochi looks a lot like cookies, but you don't want to bite into one, as it gets pretty hard when cooled. Instead you grill it or put it in soup, something warm that makes it melty and squishy again. Also, it's basically eating rice, so you probably want something with it for taste.

 The rice is starting to form a dough.

 Yay mochi making machine!

 Even more dough like!

 Once ready, the dough was removed and split into pieces so each table could work with some. The dough is pretty hot and would burn your fingers, but you have to work fast, as once it cools, it hardens.

 You take the dough and stretch it out. The white powder is flour so it doesn't stick to the table.

Next, you chop it up with a flat plastic tool to form small chunks, much like cookie dough.

 Kayla's completed mochi

 The mochi are sat on tables to cool. They are fanned and flipped regularly.

 We also made pink mochi!

An excessive amount of mochi. Messy work, flour was everywhere.