Red, White, and Blue Bread
Red, white, and blue swirled bread perfect for patriotic celebrations!
Equipment
- (2) 9 x 5-inch or 10 x 5-inch loaf pans
- mixer with dough hook
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water (105-115 degrees)
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 ½ to 5 ½ cups bread flour
- red gel food coloring
- blue gel food coloring
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add the water, yeast, and 1/8 teaspoon of the sugar. Let sit for 10 minutes. The mixture will be foamy.
- Add the sugar, salt, oil, and 3 cups of flour, using a spatula to stir between each 1-cup flour addition. Then add the rest of the flour by ½ cup and mix with a mixer and dough hook between each ½ cup. Stop adding flour when the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is a little sticky to your finger. If a lot of dough sticks to your finger, add a little more flour. (I needed 5 ¼ cups of flour to reach the correct consistency. You may need more or less flour.)
- Once the dough is smooth, not too sticky, and has pulled away from the sides of the mixing bowl, use the mixer to knead the dough for 5 minutes.
- After kneading, oil the inside of a large bowl. Add the bread dough to the bowl and turn the dough to grease all sides.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place a warm towel on top. Let rise in a warm place for 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size. Wash the mixer and dough hook.
- Grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans with cooking spray. Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface. Divide it into two pieces. Then, divide each piece into three pieces.
- Of the six pieces of same-sized dough, set two pieces aside for use later.
- Place two pieces of dough into the mixing bowl. Add a generous amount of blue gel food coloring. Using the dough hook, knead until the blue gel coloring is distributed evenly throughout the dough. Add a little flour if needed so the dough is not too sticky.
- Remove the blue dough from the mixing bowl, divide it in half again, and set it aside.
- Clean the mixing bowl and dough hook. Place two more dough pieces into the mixing bowl and place a generous amount of red gel food coloring on the dough. Use the dough hook to knead the dough until it is red. Use extra flour if you need it to keep the dough from being too sticky.
- Remove the red dough from the mixing bowl and divide it in half.
- Get one red piece of dough, one white, and one blue. Using a rolling pin, separately roll each dough piece to approximately 7 x 5 inches.
- Stack the rolled dough pieces together in this order for a blue outer crust: blue, white, and red. The bottom color of the stack will determine which color is on the outside of the cooked bread. For example, to have a red exterior, stack in this order: red, white, and then blue.
- Use the rolling pin to roll the stacked dough into a rectangle approximately 8 x 12 inches.
- Starting on the long (12-inch) side, use your fingers to roll up the dough into a log. Place the dough log into a greased baking pan.
- Repeat the process for the other three pieces of dough and place the rolled-up log into the other bread pan.
- Use cooking spray to grease two pieces of plastic wrap and place them over each pan. Cover the pans with a warm towel and let them sit for 1 hour to rise again.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
- Cool the bread in the pans for about 5-10 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Brush butter on top of each loaf.
Nutrition
Calories: 113kcalCarbohydrates: 21gProtein: 3gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0.2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.3gTrans Fat: 0.01gSodium: 195mgPotassium: 28mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 1IUCalcium: 5mgIron: 0.2mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!