4th of July Focaccia, by Mike at Rosehill Sourdough

This popped in my email for the 4th from Rosehiill Sourdough and Mike gave us permission to share his neat idea:

"Every year my friend Jackie throws an over the top 4th of July party at her house. Every food that can be red, white, and blue is or is in a serving tray that is red, white, and blue. There are American flags everywhere.

"In the spirit of Jackie's 4th of July Party, I made a red white and blue focaccia.

"Coloring sourdough has become quite the fad on social media. Whether coloring the dough itself, or painting the outside, brightly colored bread is all over IG.

"A couple of brands have emerged as favorites for coloring: Suncore and Supernatural. I am not affiliated with either brand but I will say that Supernatural did kindly gift me their plant based food coloring.

"For my focaccia, I wanted the cross-section of the focaccia to be red, white, and blue stripes." (See our other recipes for the 4th of July and focaccia recipes here.) 

Here's how he did it:

"First, I split my focaccia recipe in thirds and into three separate Cambro containers, I mixed:

• 100g [1/4 cup+2Tbsp+2tsp] cool water
• 3g [1/2 heaping tsp] salt
• 3g [3/4 tsp] olive oil
• 20g [1 heaping Tbsp] sourdough
• 125g [1 cup] flour, and
• For the red dough I added a whole pack of the Pomegranate Red from Supernatural (~1.9g or 1.5%)
• For the blue dough I added 6.3g of the Blue Butterfly Pea Powder from Suncore (~5%)

"I followed the recipe timing and when it came to put the dough in the pan to rest overnight, I did the blue first, then the white on top, and finally the red.

"In the morning, I baked like normal, and it came out amazing! Photos below.

"Next time, I think I'd go a little lighter on the red. I was afraid the colors would fade with baking but they stayed very vibrant! Maybe around 1% or 1.3g. Oh and nothing stained. My bowls and countertops are food coloring stain free.

"Red white and blue dough after mix"

and after baking