Sourdough Rainbow Bread

Sourdough rainbow bread step-by-step recipe with photos.

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• About this recipe
• Ingredients
• Step by step instructions
• Tips for making perfect sourdough rainbow bread
• Conclusion
• Recipe card
• Comments

About this recipe

Turning my white sourdough boule into a rainbow was fun and exciting. And the best part - I added only natural colours by adding different ingredients to the dough. Turmeric powder for yellow, spinach for green, blue butterfly pea powder for light and dark blue, tomato paste and chilli powder for red, and the result - a deliciously colourful bread!

I used this bread to make simple sandwiches for my kids and they absolutely loved it. It's a great way to add fun to your meals while keeping them super healthy.

Ingredients

Sourdough starter: This is the key ingredient to make any sourdough bread. Make sure the starter is active and bubbly.

Flour: I have used bread flour to make sourdough rainbow bread.

Filtered water: Use filtered water to make sourdough bread.

To colour the dough: I have used turmeric powder, chilli powder, tomato paste, spinach paste, blue butterfly pea powder to colour the dough.

Step by step instructions

1. Combine water, starter, and flour. Divide the dough into six equal part

2. Add the colouring ingredients to colour each part of the dough

3. Dough after adding the colours

4. Gently pull the dough to perform stretch and fold

5. Continue to stretch and fold at 30 minutes interval

6. Let the dough sit for bulk fermentation

7. Dough after bulk fermentation

8. Stretch the dough into a square and overlap each coloured dough. Keep the white dough towards the end

9. Roll all the dough parts together to form a log. The log should be wrapped with the white dough completely

10. Let the dough sit for cold fermentation

11. Score the dough the next morning and bake

12. Cool completely before slicing

Tips for making perfect sourdough rainbow bread

To add colour to the dough, transfer the dough to a clean bench and mix it really well making sure the colour is uniform.

The different coloured dough needs different treatments in terms of stretch and fold. For example, my yellow dough had gained enough strength by the third stretch and fold but the red dough took longer. Adjust the number of stretch and fold accordingly.

Make sure the starter is active. The night before you plan to make the dough, take the starter from the fridge and feed it in 1:1:1 ratio of starter:flour:water. See the detailed process here.

It is important to note that the time taken for the starter to activate depends on many factors. For example, the ambient temperature, the nature of the starter itself, etc. If your starter activates at a much faster rate, you can activate it the same day you are making the dough. Or, you can use either less starter or cold water to slow down the activation.

I have made this sourdough with bread flour, but you can choose any flour – for example, a combination of plain flour and whole wheat flour or bread flour and whole wheat flour.

Conclusion

Adding colours to my regular white sourdough bread made a great savoury bread. I used the slices to make simple sandwiches and it was loved by the kids. It is time-consuming to make this bread as each part of the dough needs a different treatment. But the flavours and beautiful colours will make it worth it!

I think spinach paste and turmeric powder gave out the best colour and flavour. The blue colour turned out really well too. I wanted to achieve a bright red colour and so added Kashmiri chilli powder along with tomato paste. However, the colour was pretty dull. Also, the red dough was covered with green dough (spinach) which overpowered it. I also think I should have kept twice the amount of white dough so that the entire loaf is covered well.

If you are looking for more vibrant and bright colours, use gel food dyes. Since I do not use them in any form of cooking, I have played around with the regular ingredients I use in my kitchen.

Recipe card