There are, by my count, at least seven levels of fried chicken. The worst of them is good; the best, which I waited forty-four years to find, led to what can only be called an out-of-body experience. Let’s start at …
How to Make Food Coloring
Making your own natural food coloring is an easy way to avoid unnatural, chemically derived food coloring purchased from the store. With a few ingredients that you may already have in your pantry, you can safely add color to baked goods like cookies and cupcakes, frosting and other dishes you may want to brighten up. Though these methods do not produce a shelf-stable food coloring, they are simple enough to make every time you cook or bake. Add this to my Recipe Box.
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Things You'll Need
- Turmeric Beet Frozen spinach Blueberries Instant coffee or cocoa powder
Instructions
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Gather your ingredients and look over your recipe. If you are making something like cookies that shouldn't be overly mixed, you will need to add your colorant when you mix the liquid portion of the batter. If you are coloring something like frosting where it will not matter how much you mix it, save the color for last.
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Make yellow by adding a heaping 1/4 tsp. of turmeric to your batter and blend. Add more to create a darker yellow. Stale turmeric works best for sweets, as most of the flavor has been leached out. Turmeric is also commonly used to color tofu in vegan dishes such as tofu scramble.
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Create pink or red by cutting a beet and squeezing a few drops of the beet juice into your batter. A little bit of beet juice goes a long way in coloring food, so start with a very small amount and gradually add more, drop by drop, until your food is the shade you desire. Pomegranate, raspberry and cherry juice concentrates will also work.
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Use spinach to make green. Blanch a small amount of spinach by dropping it in boiling water for 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the spinach, and puree it thoroughly in a food processor or blender. To avoid the food having a speckled appearance, add some of the liquid ingredients from your recipe as you blend until you have a consistent, frothy liquid.
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Make a reddish purple by placing five or six blueberries or blackberries in a double-layer square of cheesecloth. Squeeze them over your batter until the berries are mashed and the juice drips into the batter. A drop of blueberry juice concentrate can also be used.
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Create brown by either mixing a spoonful of instant coffee granules into an equal amount of hot water until they are dissolved, or add cocoa powder directly to your batter.
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Tips & Warnings
Use the least amount of color possible, as these natural food dyes may impart a slight flavor.
Even natural dyes can stain fabrics and countertops. Wear an apron, clean up spills immediately, and wash your hands thoroughly after direct contact with dye.
