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Failed pink loaf
In Sourdough

Failed pink loaf


Any suggestions to maintain the pink? I tried to make a Valentine’s Day themed loaf.

I added 25g of dried dragonfruit powder to my autolyse and it was so vibrant until exposed to heat. I’m not American so I don’t have access to the “K-te N*turals” (redacted because non-affiliated) brand that appears to make dragonfruit powder that maintains the colour in the crumb. I’m not buying it for €46 on a European online boutique either 😆

– 400g flour (10% einkorn)

– 264g water enriched with 17g maple syrup and 6g clarified butter (my family doesn’t like sourdough that actually tastes like sourdough)

– 130g starter (100% hydrated)

– 8g salt

Classical process after a 2 hour autolyse. Added the starter, rested 30’, added the salt and did 4 more rounds of coil folds.

6h cold proof

Baked at 230°C for 42 minutes after a 250°C preheat with my bread cloche inside the oven. I don’t uncover my loaves.

Any suggestions for the colour? I’d really like a pink loaf without artificial dyes.

Thank you!

by OddSunrise

22 Comments

  2. Nicey-Nice-Gal

    Can you get purple sweet potato powder? Seems to do better with heat, and would still look very VDay!

  4. Kirbywitch

    Whatever you do don’t try dragon fruit powder—- I made that mistake. 🤭 it makes the outside of the bread like a sticky shell if you use it like a powder. If you use it inside it is sticky again and makes the bread gummy. We had a great laugh over it though. I would do water colors and paint my bread before doing that again- I have never tried the sweet potato powder.

    https://preview.redd.it/vczcbzhptygg1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f779851c4fd97e28cd33e22542fc6958ba5c3f44

    This was one of my kids painted bread on Mother’s Day- they are older😊

  5. SuspiciousCat4446

    If you want color that is heat resistant you have to use the gel food coloring, that’s the stuff you use to keep red velvet cake red, I’ve never used it for sourdough but I imagine it’ll work just the same!

  7. pms233

    Here’s my recipe for a pink sourdough loaf. In doing some research, I found using pureed beets mixed with some vitamin c powder works well. The vitamin c messes with the pH level and keeps the bread from losing the pink hue during bake. Also while baking, I actually kept the lid on my dutch oven for most of the bake because as it bakes, instead of turning brown, the bread starts to turn orange and lose the pink color. The final loaf didn’t tastes like beets at all. It still tasted like sourdough. Feel free to ask me any questions if you try it out! https://youtu.be/l5JzoUNXMvY?si=MVE903UR5zmDkixs

  8. Random_Excuse7879

    The pink in dragonfruit is from a pigment called betanin (the same pigment in beets). It’s apparently quite sensitive to heat, although there are some additives that might help it be more heat stable. Kate’s product doesn’t list any other ingredients so I’d be surprised if it kept it’s color? SuspiciousCat suggested gel food coloring which is pretty bombproof. The only downside when I’ve used them with cakes and pastries is that the colors are **really** stable, which (shall we say) can lead to some disturbing surprises the next day…

  9. grayh722

    i was swiping though these photos thinking “there’s no way this is a fail right?” & then i saw all the colour was lost & i was caught somewhere between bamboozled & flabbergasted. all that to say idk what you could try except maybe beet juice or artificial food colouring?

  10. WineAndDogs2020

    Mr. WineAndDogs2020 used beet juice to dye bread red. Very effective!

  13. ihatemyjobandyoutoo

    The red in dragon fruit is not heat resistant 🤣

  14. Glass-Helicopter-126

    I wonder if the syrup is contributing to the color. I’ve never had much luck adding sugar to sourdough, (or pizza dough  for that matter) always seems to burn. 

  16. randomscruffyaussie

    Just a quick comment to confirm that even fresh dragon fruit will not stay pink when baked.
    I live in the tropics and strained the seeds out of dragon fruit flesh and used the juice to make the dough.
    The dough looked amazing, nice and pink.
    When baked, the colour changed to a lovely honey colour, but not pink at all.

  18. happyturtle6

    Wait I have successfully used sweet potato flour. Very very little like I think 15g of sweet potato powder. More than that it gets purple

  19. catchmeeifyoucan

    I once tried to make pink pancakes with beetroot powder and they came out looking like ham steaks lol.

  21. premgirlnz

    Ive used beetroot powder and it worked really well but it was red not pink