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I know what you’re thinking… Colourful bagels – who would want that? That was also my first instinct when Paul Hollywood set this Rainbow Bagels challenge in bread week of the 2020 Great British Bake Off (see the original recipe here).
But as I am slowly but surely trying to work my way through all of the Bake Off Technical challenges, these Rainbow Bagels were on of the recipes on the list. And – actually – they taste fine. Just like normal bread, except that they are colourful. These rainbow bagels were quite fun to make, although if I was making bagels again, I would probably just stick to my other Homemade Bagels recipe!
How do you make Rainbow Bagels?
These Rainbow Bagels were really not that difficult to make. They were certainly one of the easier Bake Off Technical Challenges I have done. The dough is made like any other bread dough: flour, yeast, salt and sugar are mixed with water and kneaded to make a smooth, stretchy dough.
Then the fun bit starts, which is diving the dough into pieces and colouring it. This was probably the most time-consuming part, as you had to work the dough quite a lot to make sure the colour was distributed evenly. The dough is then left the prove, before rolling it into 5 rectangles that are all stacked on top of one another.
You then cut the stack of colourful dough into strips and roll them out, twisting the strand in opposite directions to get a nice pattern. The bagels are then shaped and proved again, before boiling them in water and a bit of bicarbonate of soda. The bicarb and boiling helps give the rainbow bagels their shine and chewy texture. The final step is to then bake them in the oven – easy peasy.
What type of food colouring should you use to make Rainbow Bagels?
Obviously, proper food colouring is integral to this bake. There’s not much point making these Rainbow Bagels if you use bad food colouring, or they will just turn out to be a brownish mess – then you might as well make normal bagels XD!
The bagels do lose their colour slightly on the outside when baking, which is a shame because they look less impressive from the outside. However, once you cut into them, all the fun rainbow colours become visible!
You should definitely use gel food colouring for this recipe – do not use liquid food colouring. Unless you’re making water icing, I wouldn’t ever recommend buying/using liquid food colouring anyway. It isn’t strong enough and because it is liquid in can alter the consistency of your batter, dough or icing. Dr. Oetker’s gel food colouring is generally quite good, and I recently also invested in more expensive food colouring from Wilton. This is the set I bought, and I actually think all the colourings (apart from the red – I don’t what it is about red food colouring it only ever makes things pink) are really good. There isn’t any orange, but you can simply make an orange portion of dough for the rainbow bagels by making it yellow and then adding a bit of the red colouring.
More Bake Off Technical Challenges
I am absolutely obsessed with the Great British Bake Off and have challenged myself to attempt all of (or at least the ones that are “realistic” – I won’t be making pitta breads on a camp fire in the back garden!) the technical challenges from the programme! I have tried quite a few already, so make sure you check out some of the other recipes and see how I got on!
- Mary Berry’s Religieuses
- Mary Berry’s Fraisier Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Hand-raised Chicken, Bacon and Apricot Pies
- Mary Berry’s Bakewell Tart with feathered Icing
- Paul’s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
- Mary Berry’s Frosted Walnut Layer Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf
- Mary Berry’s Homemade Jaffa Cakes
- Paul Hollywood’s Wagon Wheel Biscuits
- Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Mini Pork Pies
- Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls
- Prue’s Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts (S2UC Special)
- Pizza Star Bread (Junior Bake Off)
- Mary Berry’s Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake
- Paul’s Crusty White Cob
- Paul Hollywood’s Rainbow Bagels
- Prue Leith’s Malt Loaf
- Paul’s Jammy Biscuits
- Paul Hollywood’s Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks with Homemade Tzatziki
- Prue Leith’s Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles
- Prue Leith’s Prinzregententorte
- Paul Hollywood’s Baklava (22cm)
- Paul’s Caramel Biscuit Bars (Twix)
- Prue Leith’s Vegan Sausage Rolls
- Prue’s Sablé Breton Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Sticky Belgian Buns
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
- Prue’s Garibaldi Biscuits with Feathered Chocolate Icing
- Paul Hollywood’s Pain au Raisins
- Paul’s Spicy Beef Tacos
- Paul Hollywood’s S’mores
- Prue Leith’s Pistachio Praline Ice Cream Cones
- Vegetable Spring Rolls
- Prue’s Vertical Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Raspberry Tarts
- Paul Hollywood’s Devonshire Splits
My favourite Bread Recipes
Bread is one of my favourite things to make, and I have loads of bread recipes on my blog that are a lot better than these bagels! Not that they are not nice, but the below recipes are a lot more complex in flavour! The following recipes are some of my favourites, so make sure to check them out!
- Crusty Sourdough Loaf
- Wholemeal Sourdough Baton
- Seeded Sourdough Bread
- Rye Sourdough Loaf
- German “Laugenbrezeln” (Pretzels) | German Baking Classic
- “Muntermacher” | Mixed Seed and Carrot Bread
- 3-day Crusty French Baguettes (totally worth it!)
- Italian Rosemary Focaccia Bread
- Pesto Star Bread
- German “Bauernbrot” | German Baking Classic
- Cheddar Cheese and Chive Soda Bread
- Twist Bread – 3 Ways (plain/seeded, black olive, rosemary & sundried tomato)
- Pumpkin Seed Sourdough
- Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks (with homemade Tzatziki) | Bake Off Technical Challenge
Paul Hollywood’s Rainbow Bagels | Bake Off Technical Challenge
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 375g strong white bread flour
- 5g fast-action dried yeast
- 2 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 240ml lukewarm water
- Red, yellow, orange, green and blue gel food colouring (I used this one)
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method:
- To make the dough, weigh the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast to one side, and the sugar and salt to the opposite side. Briefly mix them in with the flour on their respective sides of the bowl, then give everything a good mix.
- Add in most of the water and mix with your hands until it starts to come together. Then gradually add the remaining water, a little at a time, until you have a rough dough.
- Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes until stretchy and smooth. Then divide the dough into 5 equal pieces (around 120g each) and place each piece into a separate bowl. Keep one piece of dough and cover the remaining bowls with a tea towel.
- Use a cocktails stick to dab some of the red food colouring on the piece of dough, then knead it until all of the colour has been evenly distributed throughout. You might need to add more food colouring, but make sure you only add a little at a time. Once the colour is completely incorporated and there are no more streaks of colour, shape into a ball and return the dough to its bowl. Then repeat with the orange, yellow, green and blue colouring.
- Leave the dough to prove for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
- On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out the red portion of dough into a 12x20cm rectangle. Set aside and do the same with the orange piece of dough, then place it over the red one. Repeat this with the yellow, green and blue dough.
- Once you have created your coloured dough stack, use a sharp knife to cut it into six 2x20cm strips. Lay one of the dough strips on your work surface and place the palm of your hands at each end. Move your right hand forwards and your left hand backwards at the same time to twist the dough in an outward direction until about 26cm long. Pinch the ends together to make a circle and gently roll the join backwards and forwards to seal. Then repeat this with the remaining 5 strips.
- Place the rainbow bagels on a baking tray lined with baking paper and leave to prove again for 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda (careful, as the mixture will foam up when you add the bicarb).
- Gently boil the bagels (one, two or three at a time depending on the size of your pot) for about 30 seconds on each side until they are puffed up. Remove with a slotted spoon and place the bagels back onto the baking tray.
- Bake the rainbow bagels in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until risen and cooked through. Remove them from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool completely.
