Homemade sandwich bread just got a spooky makeover! This Halloween bread is sure to get you into the festivities with it’s vibrant colors of purple, yellow and green!
Swirled Halloween Sandwich Bread Recipe
Make your sandwiches a little more spooky this Halloween with this fun bread recipe!
This homemade sandwich bread is a fun way for the whole family to get excited for Halloween, and it’s the perfect surprise to add to everyone’s lunch boxes!
Be sure to try my Chocolate Halloween Bark too!
Why You’ll Love this Black, Purple, Green, and Yellow Halloween Bread Recipe:
- Fun: This homemade sandwich bread is a super fun recipe to make and to eat! Your kids will love to help you in the kitchen with this one!
- Make ahead: This bread can easily be made a few days ahead of time and is freezer friendly too.
- Easy: Don’t be put off by the fancy appearance! This is a straight forward recipe and even the novice bakers amongst us will be able to master this recipe!
How to Make Swirled Sandwich Bread for Halloween
Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!
- Let the yeast develop in the warm milk and sugar.
- Whisk together the flour and salt in a bowl.
- Mix the yeast, butter and molasses into the flour.
- Once a dough is formed divide into 4 balls.
- Knead food coloring into each ball of dough.
- Allow the dough to rise.
- When ready, roll the dough balls out into sheets.
- Place the sheets of dough on top of each other and roll up.
- Let the dough rise in a loaf tin.
- Bake until cooked through.
Once your Halloween bread is cooked and cooled, store it in a baggie or airtight container. It will keep well at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Yes, this sandwich bread will freeze well, and will keep for up to 3 months. Wrap the cooled bread in plastic wrap and foil and place into a container or freezer bag. Defrost the bread at room temperature to use.
This beautifully colored, spooky bread is incredibly soft and bouncy. It has a very slight hint of molasses flavor which lends itself to either something sweet like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a savory ham sandwich.
The colors used for this bread are perfect for Halloween, but you can easily mix them up to suit any occasion! Use reds and pinks for Valentines, orange, yellow and brown for Thanksgiving and green, red and white for Christmas!
This swirled sandwich bread is such a great way to get into the spirit of Halloween. Pop it into lunchboxes for a fun surprise!
We love making bread from scratch, there’s nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread in the kitchen! This is such a fun recipe to make this Halloween!
Recipe Tips and Notes
- Blooming your yeast in too hot of milk will kill the yeast. If your yeast does not bloom, try again with slightly cooler milk.
- Adding food coloring to each ball of dough may take several minutes to fully incorporate. If you use a stand mixer, it will go faster. I added color in increments and kneaded well for a few minutes before adding more. Do not get impatient with adding color, it takes quite a bit of kneading before all of the dough is fully saturated evenly. The dough may become stiff after kneading for a while. This is normal and totally fine. It will soften up during the second rise.
If you are looking for a tasty Halloween treat, that isn’t candy, you can’t go wrong with this swirled spooky bread! Fun to make, delicious to eat and everyone will love it!
If you make this recipe be sure to leave us a comment or rating. Enjoy!
Swirled Halloween Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1⅔ cups milk 378 grams, lukewarm (110°F)
- 3 tablespoons sugar 38 grams
- 2½ teaspoons instant yeast 7 grams (1 envelope)
- 4 cups all-purpose flour 480 grams
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt 5 grams
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 42 grams, melted
- 2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses 43 grams
- Yellow food coloring
- Green food coloring
- Purple food coloring
- Black food coloring
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale (optional)
- Instant Read Thermometer (optional)
Instructions
- Bloom the yeast by whisking together the warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Let stand for 5 moments to bloom. If the yeast mixture does not become frothy after 5 minutes, your yeast may be dead, in which case you need to start over.1⅔ cups milk, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2½ teaspoons instant yeast
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.4 cups all-purpose flour, 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- Once the yeast has bloomed, add it to the flour mixture along with the butter and molasses. Whisk briefly to bring together slightly before kneading to bring it together completely. Once the dough is smooth, divide into 4 equal balls.3 tablespoons unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
- One by one, add food coloring into each ball of dough, kneading well to fully incorporate. It took me about 5 minutes of kneading to incorporate the amount of color necessary.Yellow food coloring, Green food coloring, Purple food coloring, Black food coloring
- Once all of the balls are sufficiently colored, place them onto a baking sheet to rise. Leave at least 6 inches of space between them to allow them to rise. Cover with a damp towel and let them rise for about 30-45 minutes, or until doubled in size.
- While the dough rises, spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
- Once the dough balls have risen, roll them out. Begin by placing the yellow ball onto a well-floured surface. Roll out into a rough 9×9-inch square.
- Next, roll out the green in the same manner. Place on top of the yellow sheet of dough. Follow with the purple dough and then the black. Flip the layered dough squares over so that the yellow is on top and the black is on the bottom. Use a rolling pin to roll the squares out together into a rectangle about 9 inches wide and 13 inches long.
- Starting from the short side, roll the dough into a log like cinnamon rolls.
- Place the dough into the prepared loaf pan. Cover with a damp towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes, or until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 350°F while dough rises.
- Place the risen dough into the oven to bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (internal temperature should be 190°F). Remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack to cool. Slice and serve.
Notes
- Blooming your yeast in too hot of milk will kill the yeast. If your yeast does not bloom, try again with slightly cooler milk.
- Adding food coloring to each ball of dough may take several minutes to fully incorporate. If you use a stand mixer, it will go faster. I added color in increments and kneaded well for a few minutes before adding more. Do not get impatient with adding color, it takes quite a bit of kneading before all of the dough is fully saturated evenly. The dough may become stiff after kneading for a while. This is normal and totally fine. It will soften up during the second rise.
- This beautifully colored, spooky bread is incredibly soft and bouncy. It has a very slight hint of molasses flavor which lends itself to either something sweet like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a savory ham sandwich.
I really want to try this! About how much food coloring did it take to get those bright colors? I would think you’d use gel coloring. Looks like great fun!