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Butterfly Pea Flower Swirl Sourdough Bread
Here’s a recipe for when you’re feeling playful or want a visually striking slice of bread. It involves mixing two doughs, one of which is hydrated with butterfly pea flower tea to create a bright, blue-violet crumb. Folding together the white and violet doughs is fun, and cutting into the final loaf to see how they ended up swirling together even more so. (For another vibrantly colored dough bread, check out this Beetroot Sourdough Bread.)
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The crust of this bread has the usual brown Maillard reaction.
Butterfly pea flowers are originally from Southeast Asia where they are commonly used to make a blue tea. When you steep the flowers in boiling water, the water turns a pure indigo, and then any drop in pH (lemon juice in tea, sourdough in dough) shifts the color toward violet. The aroma of dried butterly pea flowers reminds me of Sweet Tarts candy and the flavor is a bit lemony. That slightly brighter flavor actually comes through in the violet parts of the final bread.
Here are photos of the fermentation and shaping of a double batch but the recipe below is for one loaf. My favorite part of making this bread, apart from slicing and eating it, was seeing how the outer layer of white dough got thinner and thinner as it stretched for the pre-shape through to the end of the final proof. It ended up being just a semi-transparent membrane over a violet layer by baking time.
Butterfly Pea Flower Swirl Sourdough Bread
Butterfly pea flowers are a natural way to get a blue-violet bread with a hint of lemon flavor. Try this eye-catching bread and have fun playing with two doughs you fold together into a colorful loaf of bread.
Ingredients
Blue Dough
White Dough
Instructions
Note
Liquid Prep
Mixing and Bulk Fermentation
Pre-shaping and Shaping
Final Proof
Scoring and Baking
Shopping List
High Protein Bread Flour
Danish Dough Whisk — Large
Breadtopia’s Choice Digital Precision Scale
$14.00Breadtopia’s Choice Kitchen Scale
$18.00Dough and Storage Bucket w/Lid – 2 qt. Square
Oval Rattan Proofing Basket
Bench Knife by Lamson — Walnut Handle
UFO Lame (Bread Journey) by Wire Monkey
$27.95Butterfly Pea Flower Swirl Sourdough Bread