It may look strange, but I assure you that this bread is perfectly normal. In fact, it’s simply a white, sandwich-type bread that I dyed red and blue in honor of the 4th of July.
It was actually really fun to make this bread. I mixed up three small batches of dough, all at the same time, and added food coloring to get the colors dark enough. I had to add quite a bit of food coloring to get the colors nice and dark. I didn’t measure it, but I’ll estimate that it was 1/2 tsp per color.
The bread had an excellent, fresh flavor, with a soft texture and crisp crust. It made wonderful toast, sandwiches and, if there were any left, I have no doubt that it would have made wonderful french toast, too.
Happy Independence Day.
My recipe is written a little differently than my usual style here:
Patriotic Sandwich Bread
In each of three bowls, combine:
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup water, room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp sugar
In one bowl, add blue food coloring (enough to get a very bright color) and add red food coloring to another. Leave the third bowl “white.”
Stir each bowl until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Add an extra tablespoon or two of flour, if necessary.
Working with each piece in turn, knead for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place each piece in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
After they rise, turn the three doughs out onto a lightly floured surface and gently deflate. Press the doughs together (I twisted them up) and shape into a rectangle. Place in a lightly greased 9×5-inch loaf pan. Cover with a piece of lighly oiled plastic wrap and let rise until about 1/2 inch above the rim of the pan, about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375F.
Bake loaf for 35 minutes at 375F, until golden.
Turn out of loaf onto a wire cooling rack and cool completely before slicing.
Rosa
July 3, 2006How cool!!
Aarika
July 3, 2006Ha. I love this idea.
gagatka
July 4, 2006Looks interesting but somehow makes me a bit anxious….
Kalyn
July 4, 2006Very creative. I like it.
helen
July 4, 2006Wow. Now that’s definitely guaranteed to create a stir in the school playground!
McAuliflower
July 4, 2006Awwww its cute!
It would be fun to make tie-dye colored bread too!
Lori
July 4, 2006On the contrary Nic, this bread looks very appealing! Happy 4th of July!
Anonymous
July 5, 2006I just wanted to tell you how much I love all the recipes you post! I have tried quite a few of them and they are always fantastic. Last night, I made the zucchini cookies for my boyfriend’s family (you guessed it, WAY too much leftover zucchini) and they cleaned the plate and couldn’t stop talking about how good they were.
I was also inspired by your lemon-meringue cupcakes and decided to experiment with a banana creme version. I made a simple banana cake recipe, and piped banana pudding into each one as a filling. Then I topped them with vanilla frosting and a caramelized banana slice on each. Definitely a keeper… thank you for sharing your recipes and beautiful photos!
Anonymous
July 5, 2006when my kids were little, i used to frequent a sandwich shop where they made grilled cheese on rainbow bread! one word of warning: don’t be alarmed at the output after digestion. it takes a moment to remember the bread and stop the freak-out
Nerissa
July 6, 2006This looks really pretty. It looks a lot more edible than some of the rainbow bread I’ve seen. I remember my sister sneaking home a slice to show me when she was at baking and pastry school. The culinary course down the hall was making them. It was the most horrendous mix of colours: pastel magenta, browns, pistachio greens and bubble gum pinks. Red, White and Blue looks MUCH snazzier!
David
July 8, 2006Yikes!
That kinda freaked me out. I thought I was having a flashback!