I made this trial loaf for a luncheon I am co-hosting next week. I made this type of bread before but my co-host is making soups and I wanted a bread that wouldn’t fight with the flavors of the soups. Rather than use cinnamon or chocolate to make the color, I used some gel food coloring.

I used my dinner roll recipe as the soft texture would pair well with the various soups. The resultant bread is soft, tender and if you closed your eyes and thought “dinner rolls” that is what you would think you are eating.

Bi-Color Pull Apart Rolls

INGREDIENTS
• 488g (2 cups) warm milk
• 2 Tbl instant dry yeast
• 50g white granulated sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 6 Tbl salted butter softened
• 2 large eggs
• 750-850g all-purpose flour
• 1 egg and 1 Tbl water

METHOD

1. In a stand mixer bowl, combine and mix all ingredients except the flour.
2. Add in 5 ½ cups of flour. Using a dough hook, turn the mixer on and increase speed slowly to keep the flour from flying all over. Slowly add the remaining flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (I watch the bottom of the bowl and add flour until the dough just comes clean from the bottom.) Once the dough clears, knead for 8 minutes. The dough mixture should be sticky and soft.
3. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise 35-45 minutes (until doubled) in a proofing drawer,
4. Punch down the dough and form into 2 balls. (I like to weigh the dough and divide the total weight by 2 to make equal sized balls. My dough weighed 1630 g therefore, each ball should be ~815g.)
5. Add 2-3 drops of brown gel food coloring to one ball and knead until well mixed. (Wear gloves)
6. Divide each ball into two smaller balls, each ~400g and form each into a rough circle ~6” diameter, then roll out into circles ~10”
7. Stack the circles interleaving the light and dark colored ones.
8. Center a 10” cake pan and trim the circles with a pizza cutter to an even circle.
9. Set a 3” bowl in the center of the stack of circles and press down making an impression
10. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough from the perimeter to the outside of the 3” circle into 12 equal portions
11. Twist adjacent portions away from each other and pinch the ends into a point.
12. Combine the scraps and roll into an oval, fold and form into a boule.
13. Cover and let rise 20-30 min. Re-pinch the ends as you stretch them out, then tuck the thin ends under the bread.
14. Whisk the egg and water and use to egg wash the breads
15. Preheat oven to 375⁰F. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned. (Tent the bread with foil after 15 -18 minutes to prevent over browning.) Internal temperature should be ~190⁰ F
16. Best when served warm. To cool, let rest in the pan for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Once cooled completely, store in a plastic bag.