You Need Bread

Today we are talking about making bread art, which is exactly what it sounds like. This ephemeral art looks good & tastes great- who could ask for anything more?

A loaf of focaccia in a round baking dish decorated with purple & white onions with shishito peppers sliced & arranged to look like a flower, baked light golden brown. Red & white onions with shishito peppers

Which Bread Recipe Should I Use?

Whatever you want! I used the focaccia #recipe from The Joy of Cooking for the bread in the photos, but any yeasted bread should work. I've even made it with Wolfe3D's pizza dough recipe (Bake 30ish minutes @ 400 F (205 c))! I believe that a thick quickbread batter (like cornbread) would work, but I have not had time to test that idea. Don’t want to make any kind of bread dough? You don’t have to. Pick up a premade pizza dough at the supermarket & go wild!

Photo of a slice of focaccia, with a lovely crumb. Focaccia dough makes great pizza & pizza dough makes great focaccia

It’s so easy!

Lots of different herbs & vegetables can be used for bread art. The examples in this article use red, green, & white onions, as well as bell & shishito peppers. Experiment with whatever you’ve got! Just keep a few things in mind…

Think Thin

Slice those veggies extremely thin. As you can see in the picture below, the purple flower was made with big thick pieces of red onion. As you can see in the picture just below that, the purple flower pretty much fell apart as the onion pieces roasted & shrank. The red pepper pieces were much thinner & they shrank much less. Photo of 3 loaves of focaccia decorated with raw vegetables, about to go into the oven. Loaf 1: circular loaf with a simple mandala made from green onions & red peppers. Loaf 2: small rectangular loaf using red & green onions to look like irises. Loaf 3 : small rectangular loaf using red peppers & green onions to look like tulips. Test 1: Unbaked

Stay Cool

Soak your cut veggies in ice water, drying thoroughly before you arrange them on your dough. This keeps the vegetables from shrinking & twisting so much. In the picture below, the greens in the round pan were not soaked & have shriveled quite a bit, while the greens in the rectangular pans were soaked in ice water & have shrunk much less.

Photo of 3 loaves of focaccia, baked to golden brown. Loaf 1: circular loaf with a simple mandala made from green onions & red peppers. Loaf 2: small rectangular loaf using red & green onions to look like irises. Loaf 3 : small rectangular loaf using red peppers & green onions to look like tulips. Test 1: Baked

Use Science!

Squeeze half a lemon into your ice water. This will keep your greens green instead of brown! It seems to have a slight brightening effect on other vegetables as well.

Use the Right Tools

A sharp knife makes your job much easier. You could also use a mandolin or vegetable peeler for those very thin slices. Take your time & get all your veggies prepped, soaked, & drying on a clean dish towel before you start decorating. Poke your toppings into the dough firmly; I like to use a chopstick. If they are just sitting on top of the bread the design will explode & your thinner greens may burn, no matter how well you soaked them.

1 round & 4 small loaves of golden brown focaccia, decorated with produce. The round one has a mandala made with red peppers & red & green onions. The rectangular ones have a mess of sliced onions that were supposed to look like flowers. Ask me how I know!

What Do You Think?

Will you make your own bread art? I hope so! I want to see what delicious art you make Mastodon Bluesky

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