Homemade Vegan Bread

Sourdough + beetroot juice swirl bread. The results are totally outstanding!

Simple things are the best things. Bread is a staple part of almost every meal here in Italy where I live. So easy to make you can get it in hundreds of different varieties. Today I wanna show you something different. I cooked it in a plum cake mold but what makes it different and unique it’s the swirly pattern inside of it. For the pink part I used beetroot juice instead of water. You can use sourdough starter as well but to make it easier for you to prepare I just relied on store-bought yeast. Let’s see how to make this homemade bread together, a simple rustic loaf with a crunchy crust and soft honeycombed crumb as I like it. Mostly important is not to be in a hurry, it is necessary to remain calm at every stage of the process and follow the timing of the dough rise. The best thing would be to use a professional kneading machine but I’ll be explaining you how to knead the dough with your hands.

WHAT YOU NEED

• 500 g manitoba flour
• 190 ml water
• 190 ml beetroot juice
• 5 g bread yeast (or 100 g fresh sourdough)
• extra virgin olive oil (as needed)
• dash of semolina flour
• 10 g salt

WHAT TO DO

Divide the yeast in two equal parts and dissolve each respectively into a glass with water and another glass with beetroot juice. Cover it with cling film and place in a warm place letting a voluminous foam to form on top. Put 250 g of manitoba flour into a bowl and add the yeast + juice solution. Start kneading well till all the water has been incorporated. You will notice the first minutes to be quite watery and really sticky. You have to keep kneading till is starts to be less sticky and more stretchy. Add 5 g of salt.

When the dough is ready you should be able to stretch it slowly and see the ‘gluten net’ which won’t break but keeps the tension. Repeat it with the flour left using the water + yeast solution and when ready leave them both into the bowl covered with cling film and let to get double the size. 

At this stage place some flour on top of the working table and grease your hands with olive oil. Take back the white dough and flatten it till 1-1,5 cm thick. Place some olive oil on top and put the other dough on it flattened till its the same length and width as the other. Now roll it and place it in a pretty tall greased plum cake mold. Sprinkle olive oil on it and a dash of semolina flour.  Leave to rise for two to three hours. 

Preheat the oven at 250° C and before to bake it place a ceramic container in it with sole water so to keep the atmosphere pretty moist. Bake for 15 minutes at 250 ° C then 15 minutes at 200° C then for 10 minutes turning on the fan with the door slightly open. Remove from the oven and leave to cool down. When at room temperature take it out from the mold and it’s finally ready.

You can store it for 2-3 days at room temperature or just slice it and freeze so it will be perfect for anytime you need a slice of it, just heat it up and that’s it.

If you got till the end you should be proud of yourself. Congratulations you just made your amazing beetroot swirl bread loaf! You can experiment using other juices as well to get different colors, try the one you like the most and share with us your results! 

See you next week with another great recipe you can’t absolutely miss out!