Tie dye rainbow bread is a French bread that has a tie dye pattern on the inside. The bread has a fluffy and soft interior and a crunchy crust. Each bread slice is different than the other and has a gorgeous tie dye pattern.
Baking rainbow bread with my toddlers is so much fun. They love the colours, they love mixing the dough, and they love playing with the dough. My original rainbow bread recipe has distinct coloured arches (like a rainbow) but because we make this bread so often I started to play around and developed a new way of mixing the colours to make a Tie Dye Rainbow Bread.

How to Make Rainbow Bread
Making the Dough
I use a stand mixer to mix up my dough but you can do it by hand as well. The recipe has a lot of detailed steps but it is quite easy to make. To start add the water, yeast, and sugar together let it rest for 10 minutes to activate the yeast. You'll know it's activated when the top of the mixture has a bubbly foam.
Add in the oil, salt, and flour. I always add an extra 1-2 tbsp of water to get the bread to combine. You want the dough to form one ball and not stick to the bowl. Once formed, knead the dough for eight minutes.
After kneading divide the dough into four balls. One ball at a time, mix in the food colouring. I find it takes 1/2-1 tsp of food colouring per each dough ball to get my desired colour. You will want to make sure you choose bright colours, I like to use Club House's neon food colouring. Kneading the colour in takes a bit of time and you want to make sure the dough is full saturated.

Assembling the Bread
After colouring the dough it's time to assemble. Pinch off small amounts from the individual balls and form them into one ball. Stagger the colours so you get a nice mix, this will give your bread the tie-dye design.
My toddlers liked this part best. They did a great job of ripping off the dough and sticking it in the main ball. Except when we got to the end and they started trying to pick the main dough ball apart.

After all colours are mixed together place the dough into a large greased bowl and let it rise till it has doubled in size. Punch dough down and let rise again for an additional thirty minutes.
It's now time to form the loaf. Place dough on a clean work surface and using a rolling pin form a rectangle.

Starting at one of the long ends roll dough together to form a loaf shape. Pinch the seems together. Then pinch the ends together and fold them underneath the loaf. Cover and let rise again for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven and create the egg wash. Brush over the entire loaf with a basting brush. Using a sharp knife cut diagonal slashes on the top of the loaf 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown.

Bake them on your own or bake them with your kids, either way I’m sure you’ll love with this Tie-Dye Rainbow Bread!
If you make this bread you can tag me on Instagram @jessiebakestreats and leave me a review below. I’d love to hear from you!
For more ideas you can follow me on Pinterest.
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Tie-Dye Rainbow Bread
Ingredients
- 2 & 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 & 1/4 C warm water
- 1 tbsp white sugar
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 & 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 C all purpose flour spooned and levelled
- 2 tsp food colouring multiple colours
Egg Wash
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp cold water
Instructions
- In your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment on add yeast, warm water, and sugar into the bowl and gently stir together. Let sit for 10 minutes or until the yeast is activated and there is bubbling foam on top of the mixture.
- Once yeast has been activated add in oil, salt, and 2 cups of flour. Mixing everything together and when combined add the remaining cup of flour.Continue doing this until dough is firm and sticks together. If dough is too sticky add small amounts of flour.
- Once the dough is the right texture (forms into one cohesive ball) continue kneading the dough in your stand mixer on a medium setting for 6 minutes. You will know when the bread is well kneaded when you press down on the dough with your finger tip and it bounces back up.
- Remove dough from the bowl and divide dough into four equal pieces. You can do this with a scale but I just eyeball it. (You can do as many pieces or colours as you like but I find four works best).
- Take one ball and add 1/2 tsp of food colouring into the dough ball. Knead the colour in by hand. You want to knead the food colouring until the dough is a solid colour. This does take a lot of time and you may have to add more food colouring to get your desired texture. Continue this step for the remaining three dough balls using a different colour for each ball.
- Once all dough is dyed its time to mix them together. Pinch of small pieces of the dough and stick them together to make one large ball (see picture in blog post above for reference). You want to try and stager the colours so you get a nice mix.
- Grease a large bowl with vegetable oil and place the dough inside. Turn dough over in the bowls to coat the top with oil. Cover with a plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let it rise for an hour or until it has doubled in size.
- After an hour gently punch each ball down, cover, and let rise again for another 30 minutes.
- After the second rise remove the dough from the bowl and place on a clean work surface. Using a rolling pin flatten into a rectangle. Try and get the rectangles do all be similar lengths and widths (it doesn't have to be perfect).
- Starting at one of the long edges, roll the dough together so it creates a loaf. Pinch the seem and ends together, and tuck them together underneath the loaf.
- Place on a lined baking sheet, cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Create an egg wash by mixing the egg white and cold water together. Uncover and brush egg wash over the loaf.
- Using a sharp knife make diagonal slashes 2 in. apart across top of the loaf.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and bread has a hollow sound when you knock on it.
- Cool before slicing.
Iliana
This was my first time ever making French bread and it came out so delicious! This recipe yielded a perfect crunchy crust with a nice springy inside to the loaf.
I did end up baking my loaf for 35 minutes until the loaf sounded hollow when I knocked on the top.
Thanks Jessie for the recipe!
Jessie M
Thank you so much for the review Illiana. I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
Tron
Love this recipe. Bread is delicious and my kids had a great time making it. Thank you