Basic Bread Painting Technique

I was recently approached by the James Dillon the editor of Baking Business magazine in Australia. He asked if they could do a feature article on the bread painting technique. Aside from being amazed and flattered, I realized that this could benefit several thousand bakers across the continent of Australia and perhaps help them add some new products and cash to their bottom line. If all goes well, this will be in the August issue reaching close to nine thousand in the baking industry. Best wishes to all the hard working bakers. God loves you. I also would love to be featured in http://www.wildyeastblog.com/. We'll see if they think my baking is up to snuff.

Well, the time has come once again for our Tutorial Tuesday. This is one I have been practicing for several years. I originally saw it in a French baking book (though I really had to dig to find out what they where doing) and knew I could make this work for me. The book is called "Special and Decorative Breads" by A. Couet and E. Kayser. The book was a gift from my mother and it spoke to my creative spirit...in every way. This week I wanted to show something that adds a whole new dimension of elegance and charm to any loaf of bread. Some have called it breathtaking. I adore it. It is basically a tinted egg wash that gives the appearance of being baked on the loaf. It is called loaf painting. I do it using an extract of wheat or barley. When I saw it in the book it was done using instant coffee granules and water. I prefer using the natural colors of the grain. I have a few other techniques for yellow, green, reds, and whites. I thought we could start with the basics here. Hopefully you will return again and again for more ideas on natural coloring. In the meantime, lets just jump right into this exciting technique!



For the wheat or barley, take the 1 cup whole grain and put it dry in a frying pan. Toast it until it is almost black. Add 1-2 cups water and steep as you would for coffee, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid.

Return the liquid to the stove and continue to reduce until a concentrated form.
You will also need one egg yolk, a few new paintbrushes, and a loaf of bread, already baked. I bake it just until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Keep your oven on. 350 degrees.

Mix a small amount of the egg yolk with the concentrate. The more you add, the lighter the color on your bread will be.

I keep a darker and lighter shade for contrasting colors. I also have a container with just egg yolk. Reserve the white for the final step!

Make your initial design with the lighter color. Then return the loaf of bread to the oven for 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and paint with your darker color for contrast and details. I use the egg yolk for the lightest areas that I still want to have a little color.

Return to the oven and bake an additional 5 minutes. This will set the color. Remove from the oven and lightly brush with egg white. Return to the oven again for 5 final minutes. It will have a nice gloss.


Here is another loaf with the initial lighter color.

Baked for 5 minutes. I then added the finer dark details with the darker shade and returned it to the oven for 5 more minutes to set the color.

There you have it. The simple basics of bread painting. I hope you will share your successes with me! I'd love to see your work! Imagine the possibilities!

There you go.

Oh, as a side note I wanted to add that my Advanced Pastry instructor from SCI would probably love to see this. It's been 14 years and I was one of her first students, but Tracy Dewitt, thank you for inspiring my creative spirit. I think of her often with great fondness. Check out Tracy here (http://forums.worldpastryforum.com/forum/topics/team-dewitt-2009-nationals ).

Baking Business magazine (https://www.tmpc.com.au/?main/ViewMagazine&page=ViewMagazine&magazine_id=13)