Baking with Pride: How to Make Rainbow Sourdough Bread!
Happy Pride Month, sweet friends! June is officially here, and around the Little Bbang House, we are celebrating the best way we know how: with wild yeast, a whole lot of flour, and every single color of the rainbow. If you’ve been looking for a vibrant, show-stopping bake to show off your Pride spirit at brunch or your next neighborhood gathering, you have officially found it.
Sourdough is usually known for its rustic, earthy, golden-brown aesthetic. But today, we are flipping the script and turning our favorite fermented dough into a stunning canvas of technicolor joy! Cutting into this loaf is pure magic. On the outside, it looks like a gorgeous, perfectly scored artisanal boule. But once you slice through that crispy crust? An absolute explosion of vibrant red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple swirls awaits you.
Now, I know what you might be thinking: “Six different colors? That sounds like a gluten-structure nightmare!” Trust me, it’s much simpler than it looks. We aren’t trying to marble the colors together into a brown, muddy mess. Instead, we perform micro-batches, stack the distinct layers, and let the natural bulk fermentation and shaping create those beautiful, clean, defined color boundaries.
Let’s dive into how we bring this magical loaf to life!
The Golden Rule of Color: Use Gel Dye!
Before you reach into your pantry, check your food coloring. Always use high-quality gel food coloring for this bake! Liquid food coloring adds too much uncalculated water to your individual bowls, which can throw off your hydration levels, mess with the gluten development, and leave you with a sticky mess. Gels give you that hyper-pigmented punch without altering our master dough formula.
The Hardest Part: The Cool Down
As difficult as it is to wait, let your gorgeous loaf cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into it. Slicing into a hot loaf can trap steam and make the crumb gummy, and we want those beautiful rainbow layers to look perfectly sharp, clean, and stunning when you make that first slice.
This bread is perfect for creating the most joyful grilled cheese sandwiches you’ve ever seen, vibrant morning toast, or just eating fresh with a thick swipe of salted butter. Bake it proud, share it with the people you love, and let’s fill this month with color, community, and excellent carbs!
Happy baking, and Happy Pride!
If you give this recipe a try, make sure to snap a picture of your crumb shot and tag me @littlebbanghouse on Instagram or TikTok —I can’t wait to see your gorgeous rainbow creations!
Rainbow Sourdough
Created by Sue Mun
Makes One, Sourdough Boule
Ingredients:
For the Dough:
- 110g ripe sourdough starter
- 340g water
- 500g bread flour
- 12g salt
Gel Food Dye Colors:
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
- Blue
- Green
- Purple
Ingredients:
Mix the Dough:
- Divide the dough recipe measurements into 6. Which would be 18g sourdough starter, 57g water, 83g bread flour, and 2g salt. Get 6 separate small bowls and mix these measurements up.
- To each bowl, add in the 57g water and the different food coloring into each bowl. Use about 4 drops of gel food coloring to each separate bowl. Once the food color is mixed with the water, mix the the remaining ingredients to each colored bowl.
- Once all the colors are mixed up, cover each bowl and rest for 30 minutes.
- Perform your stretch and folds.
- Stretch and fold #1. Using wet hands, stretch the dough into itself about 6-8 times or until gluten develops. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold #2. Using wet hands, stretch and fold the dough into itself until it can not stretch anymore. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold #3. Repeat the steps from above. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold #4. Repeat the steps from above.
- Once the last stretch and fold is finished, Pick up each colored dough and place them into a large glass or ceramic bowl so it is now one combined dough. Do not mix the colors. Cover and bulk ferment for 6-10 hours until doubled in size. This will depend on how hot your environment is.
Shape the Dough:
- Flip the dough over and gently stretch to a long rectangle. Perform a book fold and then roll the log into a tight ball. Then gently push/pull dough into a tight round in a candy cane motion.
- Dust with rice flour and place into banneton bread mold.
- Gently pull the edges of the round into the center of the dough. Just so it adds tension to the dough and helps improve oven spring when it bakes.
- Cover and proof in the fridge overnight (8-10 hours). Thee dough can be cold proofed for up to 2 days in the fridge.
The Bake:
- Preheat oven to 450F and place dutch oven in the oven to also preheat.
- Flip onto silpat or parchment and gently score the top of the dough using a lame knife.
- Carefully place the sourdough into your hot Dutch oven. Cover with the lid.
- Bake at 450F for 30 minutes with the lid covered.
- Lower the oven to 425F. Uncover the lid and bake again for 12-15 more minutes. Or until the internal temp is above 190F.
- Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting and serving.
