watercolor blue leafs on sourdough
I have been experimenting with watercoloring on sourdough. And it has combined 2 great loves. I was shocked that it was way easier than I thought it would be.
Some things to note:
The coloring will depend greatly by the quality of food gel. If you have soft easter colors, they may disappear.
Your loaf may be white pre-bake, but think about it after bake. It has a strong brown coloring. So lighter warm colors will disappear (orange, yellows, and reds)
Although this recipe uses vodka, it will burn off in the bake.
I have not noticed any negative ramifications on my bread bakes by watercoloring on top.
Interested to know what recipe I used? For the full review go here.
I have included some tips and tricks below.
ingredients
blue food gel
2 ounces of vodka
steps
Prep Watercolors. Squeeze food gel into a small prep bowl. I recommend using no more than 1/4 teaspoon to start. In a separate bowl put 1-2 ounces of vodka.
Pro tip: If you are interested in a lighter version of your color, I would recommend getting a second bowl with half the amount of food gel.
Prep bread. About 30 minutes before your dough is ready to go into the oven, it is time to do the painting. Turn out your loafs from your banneton as you normally would. Dust with flour or not, it is a preference thing.
To Dust with Flour: Lightly dust with flour using a sifter. Yes, you are putting on flour pre-painting. If you plan on having an intricate scoring design with your watercoloring, I would recommend it.
To Not Dust with Flour: If you are not a sourdough baker that likes to dust after turning out, you can skip this step. , as dusting after turning out can help enhance clarity for any scoring that occurs. If you plan on having one clean score line, you can always just dust around there.
Watercolor! Using your brush, treat your vodka like water and add to your color. This will make it more viscous and more like a watercolor. Start painting!
Pro Tip: If left out, you will notice that you will have to add more vodka as it starts to evaporate. And unlike your normal watercolors, you do need to wash out your paint trays after you are done. It is still food.
Score Loaf. I prefer to score the loaf after watercoloring because the exterior of the loaf is taught. After scoring, the loaf starts to relax and shift, making it a moving target to paint.
Bake according to your recipe.
Fun Tip: I baked this bad boy on my Traeger grill.