{"id":238496,"date":"2025-05-12T18:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T18:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/bread\/natural-bread-coloring-a-homebakers-guide\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T18:00:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T18:00:58","slug":"natural-bread-coloring-a-homebakers-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238496","title":{"rendered":"Natural Bread Coloring: A Homebaker’s Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Weclome to the homebaker\u2019s guide to natural bread coloring. Winter is perfect time to slow our lives down, to set up some goals, to decrease all the hype , to take well deserved rest, and get grounded again for new adventures. But sometimes, the winter gets too greyish, monotonous, and blues-y. It\u2019s when there might be no Sun for weeks and when all the green turns into pale memory and snow covers what might have survived the sharp cold.<\/p>\n

Then, I know, it\u2019s time to bring some joy and twists into bread baking. Today, we are going to talk about how to color your dough with natural colors.<\/p>\n

Before we dive into colors, I would like to point out some tips and directions to consider in order to avoid surprises:<\/p>\n

1. There are many ways of making your bread colorful. The most common ones I go for are:
\u2013 liquid (fresh vegetable or fruit juice)
\u2013 powder (dry spices and herbs or dried vegetable and fruit parts)
\u2013 pure\u00e9 (mashed vegetables or fruits)
There are some other ways, like concentrated vegetable or fruit syrups or as @table_fable suggested on instagram adding (powder or herb) infused oils to the dough.<\/p>\n

2. Color is also a flavor.
Keep in mind that with larger doses (of powder or liquid) you might reach the inedible limit very fast \u2013 imagine putting too much cocoa, cinnamon or charcoal powder into the dough. I have experienced this issue with using too much fresh red cabagge juice. The color was beautifully pink, but the taste was very strong \u2013 only for real red cabagge lovers (don\u2019t say I didn\u2019t warn you :)). One thing to consider is also the use of the final product \u2013 don\u2019t use fruit teas to color the dough, if you know you\u2019re going to eat the bread with savory.<\/p>\n

3. Get most of the food coloring by examining it.
If you juice your vegetables, you will notice that some vegetable juices often turn brown very quickly \u2013 the juice oxidizes. There is no difference when adding the juice to the dough. The most common color intensity loss will occur with spinach, carrot, parsley, and beetroot juice. The solution to this is adding some acidic substance to the juice, like lemon juice, buttermilk or vinegar.<\/p>\n

Also, if not sure what the juice color intensity will be in the dough, check how translucent the liquid looks. The more transparent the liquid, the less intensive the color in the final product.<\/p>\n

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Note: this post will be regularly updated with new experiments and findings about dough coloring. Feel free to join the fun here on or my Instagram<\/a> and Facebook<\/a> accounts.<\/p>\n

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Yellow<\/p>\n

\u2013 turmeric powder (for the bread on the photo below I put 1 tsp per 250 g of flour) or turmeric juice
\u2013 safrron
\u2013 egg yolks (applicable for sweet doughs)<\/p>\n

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\"Homebaker\u2019s<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Coloured with turmeric powder.<\/p>\n

Orange<\/p>\n

\u2013 carrot juice or powder
\u2013 pumpkin juice or pure\u00e9 (see the recipe here<\/a>)
\u2013 paprika powder<\/p>\n

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\"Homebaker\u2019s<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Left coloured with pumpkin puree, right coloured with fresh carrots juice.<\/p>\n

Red<\/p>\n

\u2013 hibiscus
\u2013 beetroot juice or powder<\/p>\n

Pink<\/p>\n

\u2013 raspberries
\u2013 red cabbage juice (experiment with cooked cabbage juice or adding a little bit of baking soda for blue)
\u2013 purple potato<\/p>\n

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\"Homebaker\u2019s<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Coloured with fresh red cabagge juice.<\/p>\n

Purple<\/p>\n

\u2013 purple carrots
\u2013 blueberries
\u2013 purple potatoes
\u2013 walnuts (walnuts contain tannins which give the dough greyish-purple-lavender hue)<\/p>\n

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\"Homebaker\u2019s<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Coloured with fresh purple carrots juice.<\/p>\n

Green<\/p>\n

\u2013 spinach
\u2013 matcha powder
\u2013 vegetable chlorophyll
\u2013 algae like spirulina and chlorella powder<\/p>\n

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\"Homebaker\u2019s<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Coloured with fresh spinach juice.<\/p>\n

Blue<\/p>\n

This is the only color I haven\u2019t tried experimenting with. One of the reasons might be that blue isn\u2019t really the color you would connect to food and eating (unicorn cakes don\u2019t count!). In food psychology, blue is considered as appetite suppressant and it is therefore very advisable to use blue at meals when wanting to lose weight (using blue plates for example). In nature, blue food is very rare, actually, I don\u2019t remember any at the moment (except for some flowers and I don\u2019t consider blueberries blue :)).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m planning to experiment with blue in next weeks. Wish me luck!<\/p>\n

Brown (rye malt, cacao)<\/p>\n

\u2013 rye\/barley malt (see the recipe here)<\/a>
\u2013 cocoa powder
\u2013 cinnamon
\u2013 coffee<\/p>\n

You can check a great tutorial for zebra effect (right photo below) on this link<\/a>. Try experimenting with different color combinations, it\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n

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\"Homebaker\u2019s<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Coloured with cacao powder.<\/p>\n

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\"Homebaker\u2019s<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Coloured with rye malt.<\/p>\n

Black \/ grey<\/p>\n

Black is, same as blue, relatively unappealing color when it comes to food. My experience with sharing black bread is doubt mixed with curiosity at first, and excitement after trying it.<\/p>\n

\u2013 activated charcoal powder (see the photo below, get the recipe here<\/a>)
\u2013 squid ink
\u2013 large quantities of raw cocoa powder<\/p>\n

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\"Homebaker\u2019s<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Coloured with charcoal powder.<\/p>\n

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Have you tried bread coloring?
What is your favorite color?
What is your best experience and best tip for getting intense colors?<\/p>\n

I would love to hear from you, let me know in a comment below, I\u2019m looking forward! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n