Naturally Coloured: Pink Bread

Every rainbow party needs a little coloured bread. Just like the yellow/orange coloured bread I made the other day, I needed to create a few more colours so today I made some purple bread and some pink bread. 

This pink bread was quite straight forward, just using some roasted beetroot and it gave a brilliant colour, maintaining a good bread-flavour and consistency. 

I used a normal sized silicon loaf to make a loaf of pink bread along with some heart-muffin-trays to make some heart-shaped bread rolls... 

Pink-Beetroot Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (250ml) of tepid water
• 1 tsp (5ml) dried yeast
• 1 Tbs (15ml) sugar
• 1 Tbs (15ml) plain flour
• 2/3 cup of roasted and puréed beetroot (1 medium beetroot)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 4 cups plain flour

Method:

1. Pre-roast 1 medium beetroot (using a moderately hot oven, usually 180˚C for 30-60 minutes). When cooked and cool, don some kitchen gloves and peel then blend to create a fine purée.  
2. Place the first 4 ingredients in the bread maker (or a bowl) and cover for 15 minutes (this just helps to get the yeast going).
3. Place the rest of the ingredients in the bread maker and set to the 'DOUGH' (or knead on your bench for 10 minutes and cover with clean/warm/damp tea-towel for 1 hour). The final product is a slightly moist dough, but you may need a little more flour than I have indicated. Knock back and re-cover with a warm/damp tea-towel and set aside to double in size. 
4. Spray your (silicon) bread loaf mold with a little oil (I had enough dough to make a loaf and an additional 6 heart-dinner-rolls). Turn out the dough onto lightly floured surface and lightly knead. Shape the dough and place into the bread mold, sprayed with oil and cover with a clean/warm/wet tea-towel. For a third time, set aside to rise (about 40 minutes). 
5. Pre-heat your oven to a moderate heat setting (180˚C). Place several diagonal cuts in the top of the dough with a serrated knife. Bake for 30 minutes (or until slightly golden brown and cooked through...as in when you tap it, it sounds a little hollow). Turn out of the mold and set aside to set and cool. 

Spray a little oil on your dough, cover
with a clean/warm/damp cloth and cover to rise.

Punch back, cover and rise again

Divide into portions to make bread rolls (heart shaped!)

And leave enough for a loaf...cover both and rise for a final time

Allow to cool then slice to use

Use a cookie-cutter for
added interest for your sandwiches

Pink-heart sandwiches

Remember to cut the cheese to size as well