Red, white and blue baguette to celebrate the 4th of July
The magic behind independence day bread is the following. We all know that when it comes to BBQ, the hero is whatever is sizzling on the grill: steak, burgers, veggies… you name it. We also know, however, that every hero needs a great sidekick to shine. The Robin to your Batman, the Hermione Granger to your Harry Potter, the Julian Edelmann to your Tom Brady.
One amazing sidekick to a BBQ is bread, and since we are talking about July 4th, the most fitting bread type would be a baguette, since it was the French who were a strong supporter of American independence. This Independence Day Bread recipe uses the baguette recipe I posted a while back, but creates a tri-colored loaf out of it to mark the occasion.
At a glance
- Category: Holiday food, bread
- Servings: 1 bread (10-12 slices)
- Preparation time: 20 min
- Rest time: 90 min (1.5 hrs)
- Oven time: 30 min
- Time from start to finish: 2 hrs 20 min
Ingredients for one independence day bread
- 2 1/4 cups (300 grams) flour plus 2 extra tablesspoons, type T65/type bread flour/type 550
- 7 ounces (200 ml) of warm water (not hot though)
- 1 teaspoon (approx. 10 grams) of fresh yeast
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 pinch of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of red food color
- 1 tablespoon of blue food color
- A bit of flour to roll out the dough
How to prepare Independence Day Bread
Step 1: The first step is to dissolve the yeast in warm water in a large bowl.
Step 2: Afterwards, mix in the salt and sugar to ensure that they are fully able to infuse the dough, then drizzle in the flour. Ideally, use a spatula to roughly combine all of the ingredients and then continue kneading it with your hands.
Step 3: When everything is well-blended, divide the dough for your independence day bread into three equal parts. Coat one part in a bit of flour and place it in the casserole or oven tray that you want to use for baking later. Place the other third of the dough in a separate bowl. Now add the red food color to one of the bowls and the blue food color in the other. Add one additional tablespoon of flour to each. Knead the color and flour into the dough until well combined.
Step 4: Coat each of them with a bit of flour and place them next to the non-colored white dough. Cover it with a kitchen towel and let the yeast grow in the dough for your independence day bread for 1.5 hours.
Step 5: When the 90 minutes are up, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius and pull each piece of dough to length. Intertwine the three parts before placing them back in the casserole dish or on the baking tray.
Step 6: Use a pair of scissors to cut into the dough about 1/3 inch / 1 cm deep. This allows the bread to expand while baking and thus ensures an evenly baked core without too many or too big holes.
Step 7: Drizzle a bit of flour on top and let your independence day bread bake for 30 minutes.
P.S. Obviously, this recipe doesn’t only work for red, white and blue as an independence day bread, but also works beautifully with any other colors for any other occasion. Like the colors of your favorite sports team or a festive red and green for christmas season. Just keep in mind that for every tablespoon of food coloring you add, you need to add one additional tablespoon of flour.
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