Is there a way to make regular white bread yellow without using turmeric or dye? I have tried several recipes, including one using corn flour, which is good, but tastes rather like corn bread, and one using turmeric, which did not mix well and was more gold than yellow.
4 Answers
Another option is to make an enriched bread with a lot of egg yolks in it.
Challah comes to mind but there are also regular sandwich breads that use the same technique. They have more fat and are therefore more tender and richly flavored than leaner sandwich breads.
They tend to be a pale yellow rather than a bright yellow you'd get from a dye.
answered Jan 24, 2018 at 0:29
Saffron bread is traditionally sweet and enriched, but has a nice pale yellow colour. I see no reason why you couldn't add saffron to a standard dough. The saffron must be very fine or you'll see little strands of it in the bread.
It may be worth persisting with the turmeric though. One thing you could try is soaking the turmeric in the water you're using for the bread, well in advance of making the dough. A lot of the colour will end up in the water, and soak into the flour. Turmeric in water can be used to make a natural food dye. You may need to adjust the proportions of turmeric to water. If you dye a bit more water than you'll need, and pour it off the turmeric you'll get quite a good idea of the colour as you start to mix in the water (assuming you're not using a bread maker).
You could even combine the two to get the colour just right.
If you shop around you may be able to find an acceptable dye - there are plenty of plant-derived food dyes if you look for them.
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2Also, tumeric can make things more yellow than yellow itself - it is a flourescent... Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 0:38
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1Saffron is a good suggestion, worth noting it has a strong flavor which may not be to everyone's taste.– GdDCommented Jan 24, 2018 at 11:41
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"Natural" yellow food colourings (e.g. this one on Amazon) appeart o be made from curcumin (e.g. turmeric extract, but not very soluble in water -- to make your own dissolve in alcohol) and anatto from a tree seed.– Chris HCommented Jan 26, 2018 at 16:46
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My answer to a related question goes into a bit more detail about making turmeric extract. Turmeric colours oil better than it does alcohol– Chris HCommented Apr 11, 2018 at 6:01
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1Some saffron breads are sweeter than others... we tried one that called itself less sweet, then on a second baking tried even less sugar, for a bread that was much more savory/neutral in flavor - and quite yellow, since we were also pretty generous with the saffron, and ground it down and soaked it to release more color.– MeghaCommented Apr 12, 2018 at 0:02
Durum flour is naturally yellow. If you use the semolina version you'll have a rather different texture (it's quite coarse) but either one will give you some high-protein wheat that's yellow.
Onions!
The outermost, dry and crusty part of onion skins (which you'd usually throw away) has traditionally been used for making yellow-to-orange dye by just boiling it in water. So, if you boil onion skins in water, and then use that water for baking, you have a good chance of getting some yellow(ish) bread.
