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Beetroot Sourdough Bread
These beetroot breads (25% and 100% whole grain) really highlight the magic of chemistry because the pink pigments of the beets survive the heat of baking if you add one tiny ingredient to the dough. Years ago I made a dough with pureed beetroot that started out a deep fuchsia, but once I baked it, the bread was a greenish-yellow with just a few hints of pink in the crust (see photo below). It was lovely in its own right but I wondered why the color changed so dramatically.
Later I learned from Breadtopia community member @tsamajama that the betalain pigments found in beets degrade rapidly in the presence of heat, oxygen, and rising pH. He did some testing to determine the effect of pH on a beet-water solution. First he stabilized the beet water with lemon juice, mostly as an antioxidant. He added vinegar to lower the pH and boiled the beet-water. It stayed pink! Then he added bicarbonate to raise the pH and boiled it. The beet-water turned yellow. Of note, bringing the acidity back down in the yellow liquid with more vinegar didn’t reverse the degradation of the pigments.
A fuchsia beet dough without vitamin C baked into a lovely greenish-yellow color.
I shelved this knowledge for a few years, until this summer when my garden produced a bumper crop of beets. With a huge Tupperware of boiled beets in my refrigerator, I googled “beet bread acid” and hit on this blog post that shows how beet breads can retain their pink color with crushed vitamin C tablets in the dough. Thus were born these recipes: a lighter pink bread that’s 25% whole grain Kamut; and a rusty almost-orange bread that’s 100% whole grain red fife and hard white wheat.
25% whole grain on left; 100% whole grain on right. The mottled color in the left dough is presumably due to irregular distribution of the vitamin C from whisking it into the flour. For the whole grain dough, I dissolved the powder into the beet puree.
I used more beet puree and vitamin C in the whole grain dough to try to saturate it with beet color, but it’s still more brown. If beet flavor and nutrition are your only priorities in that bread, you might not bother with the vitamin C at all. And if color is your only priority, you might use the higher beet and vitamin C amounts from the whole grain recipe in a dough with only “white” bread flour. In that case, definitely reduce the water amount because you won’t have any bran to absorb the extra beet liquid.
Very intense color achieved through using only bread flour, 150g beetroot, and 750mg vitamin C. Only about 230g water because of the increased beet and the lack of whole grain flour.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the most important feature of the breads: they tasted great. My family ate the loaves with scrambled eggs, whitefish salad, tomatoes and mayo, and simply buttered. Opinion was divided on whether the beet flavor came through in the final breads, with some saying “not at all” and others saying “for sure.” It certainly doesn’t have as much of a vegetable flavor as the butternut squash bread or zucchini sourdough bread I’ve made in the past.
One curiosity about the whole grain beet bread with twice the vitamin C is that I initially perceived it to be quite sour, but by the next day it wasn’t sour at all. I’m not sure if this was a fluke and related to whatever I’d eaten just before trying the bread, or if some mellowing of the ascorbic acid (vitamin C) takes place over time. If you try the bread with 1000 mg of vitamin C, I’d love to hear how you perceived the sourness over time.
Hydration
Both the 25% and the 100% whole grain versions of this bread are quite hydrated, and there is potential for a lot of variability due to your particular beets and how you cook them. If you roast your beets rather than boil them, they may add less water to the dough than mine did. To be safe, reserve about 65 grams water and add it only if your dough seems to need it or if you want the challenge of a wet dough. If you go for high hydration as I did, leave the dough uncovered for the bench rest, and expect to use plenty of flour on the bench and in your proofing basket.
This video shows how much flour I used on the dough during shaping.
Beet Prep
You may want to wear dark clothing while prepping the beets for this dough.
I prefer to boil beets rather than roast them because the skin removal is easier with boiling, but you can cook your beets however you prefer. Here’s my method if you want to try it. I wash the beets, leaving the skins on. I put them in a pot with enough water to completely cover them and set them to boil. I try to have similar-sized beets, and if not, I fish out the smaller beets sooner. Keep a fork handy next to the pot to test if the beets are cooked.
I consider the beets done when I can poke the fork into the beet up to the end of the tines, but not easily (NOT like a cooked potato). When they’re done, I dump out the hot water and fill the pot with cold water. Then with my hands and the beets under the cold water, I rub the skins off with my thumbs. If the beets are still too hot, refresh the cold water and try again.
After the beets are cooked and peeled, you can cut and weigh what you need for the recipe. I used an immersion blender to puree them with about 100g of the water from the recipe. You can also do this in a food processor or blender. To ensure the vitamin C is well distributed into the dough, you can dissolve it into the beet puree.
Pureed beet and water with crushed vitamin C tablets mixed in.
Banneton Clean-Up
I had no trouble getting the pink dough residue off my banneton liner. I didn’t test the final proof directly on the rattan, though, so I would avoid that if you don’t want a stained basket. If you don’t have a banneton liner, you can use a well-floured tea towel. Both the liner and tea towel can be washed in the sink with lukewarm water and a bit of dish soap. Wrap the fabric around your knuckles and rub them together to remove the dough. Rinse well and hang to dry completely before storing.
Beetroot Sourdough Bread
This bread is unique and beautiful, and also quite delicious. It works well for sandwiches and toast, and is also perfectly moist and interesting by itself.
Ingredients
25% Whole Grain Beet Bread
100% Whole Grain Beet Bread
Instructions
Mixing
Gluten Development
Pre-Shape, Bench Rest & Shaping
Final Proof & Baking
If using a clay baker, bake the bread:
If using a cast iron vessel, add a sheet of foil under the parchment and bake the bread:
Photo Gallery 25% Whole Grain Beet Bread
Photo Gallery: 100% Whole Grain Beet Bread
Shopping List
Beetroot Sourdough Bread