This chewy pink sourdough bread is perfect for a fun occasion. Colored with dragonfruit powder, pink sourdough bread is easy to whip up and makes for a fun and festive Valentine’s Day or Easter bread loaf recipe.

This chewy pink sourdough bread is perfect for a fun occasion. Colored with dragonfruit powder, pink sourdough bread is easy to whip up and makes for a fun and festive Valentine’s Day or Easter bread loaf recipe.

A Festive Treat
Sourdough bread is a classic boule recipe. Crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, sourdough bread is a household staple that I just keep on rotation.
Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and I’m always thinking of new fun (and non-toxic) treats to enjoy with my daughter for holidays. We love baking together.
I’m sure I’ll convert my sourdough chocolate cupcakes recipe into vanilla, and then add some pink frosting, but for now I wanted to make some pink sourdough bread.
This recipe is super easy. It’s a regular sourdough loaf of bread, but with dragonfruit powder added to make it pink on the inside. Cutting open a pink loaf of bread is so fun, now I’m curious what other colors I can make!
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New to Sourdough?
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How to make bread from sourdough starter
First, you need an active and fed sourdough starter. This means that the starter has been sitting out long enough to have large, lumpy bubbles at the top and it smells like sourdough.
If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you can make one with bread and flour. It takes about a week to make a starter that would be strong enough for bread. Learn all about sourdough starter and how easy it is to make here — how to make sourdough starter from scratch.
You will use this starter to make your bread rise. Once you have the active starter, you combine it with water, lots of flour, and salt to form your dough. Then, you let the dough rise at least for 12 hours before baking your bread.
If you are using sourdough starter to make bread, you do not need a yeast packet. You have natural yeast in your homemade starter!

More Sourdough Recipes from the Homestead
Sourdough Sugar Cookies with Einkorn Flour
Double Chocolate Sourdough Einkorn Cranberry Brownies
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Tools Needed
Large bowl (you can also use a standup mixer with dough hook attachment)
Fork
Measuring cups and measuring spoons
Dutch oven
Parchment paper
Scoring lame (or sharp bread knife)
Pink Sourdough Bread Ingredients
3/4 cup fed, active sourdough starter (I feed my starter with 3/4 cup filtered water and 1 cup all-purpose flour)
1 1/2 cups filtered water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp dragonfruit powder
4 cups all purpose or bread flour
How do I know my starter is ready for bread making?
You know your starter is ready after it’s been fed, sat out at room temp for several hours, has large, lumpy bubbles on top, and smells like sourdough.
You may also do the “float test”. Spoonful some starter in a glass of water and, if it floats, your starter is ready!
Example Baker’s Timeline
Sourdough bread, from the moment you feed your starter to the moment the loaf comes out of the oven, takes about 24-36 hours when long fermented.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
First, the temperature of your house plays a part in how fast your dough will rise and ferment. The warmer it is, the faster it will go. So a loaf may take 36 hours in the winter but only 12 hours in the summer.
Second, this timeline is not rigid. It is simply a guideline of how I cook my bread most of the time. There is really not set amount of time that sourdough bread takes. There is a learning curve that you’ll come to love with practice where you “just know” when your bread is ready, so keep on making bread!
Saturday morning: Take starter out from the fridge and feed it. Let sit on the counter all day until it passes the float test.
On Saturday late afternoon: Phase 1 – Make the Dough
Then Saturday evening: Phase 2 – Stretch and folds
Saturday over night: Phase 3 – Bulk Rise
Sunday morning: Phase 4 – Shape & Second Rise
Sunday afternoon: Phase 5 – Bake the Bread

How to make Pink Sourdough Bread
Phase 1 – Make the Dough (3-5 min)
Pour the fed and active sourdough starter, water, salt, and dragonfruit powder into a large mixing bowl and whisk together with a fork.
Add the flour. With clean hands, or a stand up mixer with a dough hook attachment, combine all ingredients for about 20 seconds until all the flour is cleaned off the sides of the bowl. The dough will feel sticky and that’s normal!
Let the dough rest. Put a tea towel on top of the bowl and set on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour.

Phase 2 – Stretch and Folds (1 min)
Starting from one end of the dough, lift it up and fold it over itself into the center of the dough. Then rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat, until all sides have been stretched and folded. So, four times total.
Cover the bowl and let sit out on the counter.
Then, repeat the lifts and tucks 2 more times (for a total of 3 times), each about one hour apart. Now, don’t get too obsessed with this part. This is just creating nice volume in your bread. If you skip one or let two hours go by instead of one, it’s totally okay.

Phase 3 – Bulk Ferment (30 sec)
The easiest (and most important) phase!
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge and let bulk ferment overnight.
Phase 4 – Shape & Second Rise (5 min)
Pull the dough out of the fridge and clear a spot on your countertop. On half the counter, sprinkle some flour and leave the other half clean with no flour.
Remove the dough from the bowl and place on the flour side. Do one more round of the stretch and folds to form your dough.
Remove the dough from the flour side, flip it over, and set it on the non-flour side.
Form the letter C with your hands and use a cupping motion around the dough to create a ball. Rotate the ball with short rotations in a circle. You should have a dough ball that is easy to pick up and not sticky now.
Grab a sheet of parchment paper and set the dough on the parchment paper.
Pick up the parchment paper and set the dough in a dutch oven. Cover with a tea towel and let sit in a warm spot on the counter for at least 2 more hours.

Phase 5 – Bake the Bread (35-45 minutes)
First, take your bread out of the dutch oven.
Turn your oven onto 450 degrees F and place the dutch oven (empty) into the oven to preheat with it.
Once the oven is preheated, score your bread. Scoring is the process of creating a slit in the dough so that it can breathe and rise in the oven. You can buy a bread lame to do this, or just use a serrated knife from your kitchen.
Create one or two slits in the bread with a serrated knife.
Carefully place the parchment paper with the bread on it inside of the dutch oven.
Cover the dutch oven and, with the bread inside, place it in the oven.
Bake for 20-25 minutes with the lid on, and then another 15 minutes with the lid off. The cook time may vary depending on your oven.
When your bread is done, carefully transfer it to a cooling rack (the dutch oven will be very hot). Do not cut it open! I know it’s tempting, but the bread is actually still baking. Put your ear up close and you’ll hear the crackling of the dough still forming. Leave it be about an hour and then enjoy.

FAQ:
How do you turn sourdough pink?
You can easily use dragonfruit powder to turn sourdough bread pink. It’s a natural color that comes from fruit!
Does the natural colorant add a flavor to the bread?
No, dragonfruit powder does not add significant flavor to the bread. It is basically flavorless.
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More Bread Recipes from the Homestead
Einkorn Sourdough French Bread
Einkorn Sourdough Cinnamon Raising Bread

Pink Sourdough Bread
This chewy pink sourdough bread is perfect for a fun occasion. Colored with dragonfruit powder, pink sourdough bread is easy to whip up and makes for a fun and festive Valentine's day or Easter bread loaf recipe.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup fed, active sourdough starter (I feed my starter with 3/4 cup filtered water and 1 cup all purpose flour)
- 1 1/2 cups filtered water
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp dragonfruit powder
- 4 cups all purpose or bread flour
Instructions
Mix Ingredients
- Pour the fed and active sourdough starter, water, salt, and dragonfruit powder into a large mixing bowl and whisk together with a fork.
- Add the flour. With clean hands, or a stand up mixer with a dough hook attachment, combine all ingredients for about 20 seconds until all the flour is cleaned off the sides of the bowl. The dough will feel sticky and that’s normal!
- Let the dough rest. Put a tea towel on top of the bowl and set on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour.
Stretch and Folds
- Starting from one end of the dough, lift it up and fold it over itself into the center of the dough. Then rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat, until all sides have been stretched and folded. So, four times total.
- Cover the bowl and let sit out on the counter.
- Then, repeat the lifts and tucks 2 more times (for a total of 3 times), each about one hour apart. Now, don't get too obsessed with this part. This is just creating nice volume in your bread. If you skip one or let two hours go by instead of one, it's totally okay.
Bulk Ferment
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge and let bulk ferment overnight.
Second Rise
- Pull the dough out of the fridge and clear a spot on your countertop. On half the counter, sprinkle some flour and leave the other half clean with no flour.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and place on the flour side. Do one more round of the stretch and folds to form your dough.
- Remove the dough from the flour side, flip it over, and set it on the non-flour side.
- Form the letter C with your hands and use a cupping motion around the dough to create a ball. Rotate the ball with short rotations in a circle. You should have a dough ball that is easy to pick up and not sticky now.
- Grab a sheet of parchment paper and set the dough on the parchment paper.
- Pick up the parchment paper and set the dough in a dutch oven. Cover with a tea towel and let sit in a warm spot on the counter for at least 2 more hours.
Bake
- First, take your bread (and the parchemnt paper) out of the dutch oven.
- Turn your oven onto 450 degrees F and place the dutch oven (empty) into the oven to preheat with it.
- Once the oven is preheated, score your bread. Scoring is the process of creating a slit in the dough so that it can breathe and rise in the oven. You can buy a bread lame to do this, or just use a serrated knife from your kitchen.
- Create one or two slits in the bread with a serrated knife.
- Carefully place the parchment paper with the bread on it inside of the dutch oven.
- Cover the dutch oven and, with the bread inside, place it in the oven.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes with the lid on, and then another 15 minutes with the lid off. The cook time may vary depending on your oven.
- When your bread is done, carefully transfer it to a cooling rack (the dutch oven will be very hot). Do not cut it open! I know it’s tempting, but the bread is actually still baking. Put your ear up close and you’ll hear the crackling of the dough still forming. Leave it be about an hour and then enjoy.
Notes
Baker's Timeline:
Saturday morning: Take starter out from the fridge and feed it. Let sit on the counter all day until it passes the float test.
On Saturday late afternoon: Phase 1 - Make the Dough
Then Saturday evening: Phase 2 - Stretch and folds
Saturday over night: Phase 3 - Bulk Rise
Sunday morning: Phase 4 - Second Rise
Sunday afternoon: Phase 5 - Bake the Bread
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