Easy Vegan Christmas Bread with Bake-and-Serve Dough
Servings: 9
Calories: 131kcal
This festive red and green vegan Christmas bread is as easy to make as it is colorful! Made with bake-and-serve bread and colored with red and green gel food colorings, you mix it together with a stand mixer and dough hook. Layer and roll, let it rise, and bake. You'll have a colorful lovely Christmas swirl bread on the table in no time.
Print Recipe
Equipment
- stand mixer with dough hook
Ingredients
- 1 pound loaf bread dough
- 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour divided
- 1 teaspoon green gel food coloring more if desired
- 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring more if desired
Instructions
- Thaw a one-pound loaf of bake-and-serve bread if not already thawed. I place one in a large baggy in the refrigerator overnight. Bring it closer to room temperature by setting it on the counter for about 30 minutes before making the bread.
- Grease a 9 x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray or vegetable shortening.
- Make sure your loaf is fully thawed. I set it out on the counter for about 30 minutes to bring it to room temperature. This time is included in the prep time. Separate the loaf into three equal pieces. You will be coloring one of them red, one green, and leaving one white. If one piece is a little larger than the others, I make this the white piece.
- Place one of the three pieces in the stand mixer bowl and insert the dough blade. Add one teaspoon of green food coloring and one-half tablespoon (on half) of the flour. Mix on high speed for several minutes, adding more coloring if desired. See notes if the coloring is not mixing in. Set the green dough aside and clean the bowl and dough hook well.
- Repeat with the second piece of dough and the red coloring. Leave the third piece of dough white.
- Use your hands or a rolling pin to roll out the uncolored dough into an 8-inch wide rectangle. Work on a floured surface and use a little flour on the rolling pin to keep the dough from sticking. Set the white dough aside.
- Roll the green ball out the same as the white one and set the green rectangle on top of the white one. Roll the red dough the same as the green dough and layer it on top of the green. The white bottom layer should be slightly larger around the border than the other colors. See the blog post for photos.
- Again, please refer to the photos in the blog post. Tightly roll the layered dough, starting from the bottom so that it stays 8 inches wide. Roll it into a loaf and place it in the prepared loaf pan.
- Wet a towel and ring it out well. Cover the loaf pan with the damp towel and set it in a warm draft-free area. Let rise for about two hours. Check the loaf after an hour and a half and see if it is ready yet. You'll know because the dough will have doubled in size and the dough will pass the poke test. (See notes.) Sometime toward the end of the rising process, preheat the oven to 350°
- Place the prepared and risen loaf in a preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. The bread will have risen about an inch above the pan and will be nice and brown. When you tap on the top it will hard and sound a little hollow. The top will soften as it cools.
- Take the bread out of the oven and remove the loaf from the pan. Wait until (mostly) cooled to cut or it will get smashed by the knife!
Notes
If the coloring is not mixing in well, tear the dough into little pieces and remix. You can also knead it in my hand for a few minutes after mixing. If the color is a little streaky it will still look pretty when cooked.
Depending on the coloring you use, the dough might be a little too sticky when mixing. If it is sticking to the sides then you can add an extra teaspoon of flour.
This article by Bon Appetit explains the poke test.
Nutrition
Calories: 131kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.001g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.003g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.001g | Sodium: 237mg | Potassium: 1mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0.002g | Calcium: 0.1mg | Iron: 0.04mg