I had a going away brunch this weekend, and the most exciting thing I made was definitely this bread. Vibrant colors that don’t fade during baking and a delicious bread, great for sandwiches or french toast, this bread is a winner!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg yolk plus enough milk to total 1 cup liquid
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons salt
• food coloring

In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk the egg yolk and milk together and microwave 30 seconds. Set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, and yeast in a stand mixer bowl and stir together. Pour in the milk mixture and the salt and butter, and stir together and then knead with the dough hook until smooth and supple, around 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into 5 equal pieces. I had my kitchen scale around, so for once my “even” divisions actually were. Put the pieces in bowls or on a piece of wax paper, and cover with saran wrap.

Wearing gloves, knead a different color food coloring into each portion of dough on a cutting board you don’t mind dying, or on some waxed paper. Other than the yellow, the other colors I used were from a set of neon food coloring, and they all looked great in the finished loaves. It takes a good chunk of time to knead the color into the dough evenly, but it’s worth it. Keep the doughs you’re not working on covered so they don’t dry out.

When all the doughs have been dyed, leave them covered and let rise
until doubled, 1 1/2 – 2 hours.

After the dough has risen, punch each color down and roll them out into 8X4″ rectangles. Stack them in a rainbow-y order.

Roll your stack up from one short end towards the other.

The recipe as written makes one loaf, I doubled it for more bread.

Place the loaf in a lightly greased 9X5″ bread pan.

Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Preheat your oven to 375, and bake until brown on the outside, about 30 minutes. The loaf should sound hollow if you tip it out of the bread pan and tap on the bottom.

Let cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

It looked good with the other rainbow items I made for the party!

And was fantastic french toast!

I’ll be sharing this with yeastspotting!

Rainbow Bread

From Tablespoon.

• 1 egg yolk plus enough milk to total 1 cup liquid
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons salt
• food coloring

In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk the egg yolk and milk together and microwave 30 seconds. Set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, and yeast in a stand mixer bowl and stir together. Pour in the milk mixture and the salt and butter, and stir together and then knead with the dough hook until smooth and supple, around 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into 5 equal pieces. Put the pieces in bowls or on a piece of wax paper, and cover with saran wrap.

Wearing gloves, knead a different color food coloring into each portion of dough on a cutting board you don’t mind dying, or on some waxed paper. Keep the doughs you’re not working on covered so they don’t dry out. When all the doughs have been dyed, leave them covered and let rise until doubled, 1 1/2 – 2 hours.

After the dough has risen, punch each color down and roll them out into 8X4″ rectangles. Stack them in a rainbow-y order. Roll your stack up from one short end towards the other end, then place in a lightly greased 9X5″ bread pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Preheat your oven to 375, and bake until brown on the outside, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.