Funfetti Sourdough Bread

This Funfetti Sourdough takes classic sourdough bread and makes it party-ready with a crisp crust, tender crumb, subtle cake-like sweetness, and plenty of rainbow sprinkles. Top it with a vanilla icing to add even more sweetness!

Jump to:

• 💜 Why this recipe works
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🍞 Recipe tips
• ⏲️ How to store
• ☀️ Sample timeline
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

This recipe is a true labor of love. While I've perfected my sourdough bread recipe over the past several months, I really wanted to create something new and different: funfetti sourdough bread.

OK fine, so I got the idea from Taylor Swift when she was on Travis Kelcie's podcast New Heights. Ever since she mentioned funfetti sourdough, I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

I started baking almost immediately after that podcast, but the testing process for this bread was rigorous and it took me many, many loaves to achieve the perfect bread.

I wanted a funfetti sourdough that was a little bit sweet, but that still had that renowned sourdough tang. I wanted a tender and springy crumb that added sugar can sometimes prevent. I wanted a crackly crust without the sprinkles burning. And I wanted the sprinkles to be evenly distributed without bleeding throughout the entire loaf.

It turns out that was a lot to ask, but after lots and lots of testing, I finally got it.

I'm so excited about this funfetti sourdough bread and I can't wait for you to make it, too!

💜 Why this recipe works

As you probably know, sourdough bread can be finicky and that is even more true when you start adding in extra elements, like sugar.

Here's why this recipe works:

Just enough sugar added: I didn't want this bread to be a sugar bomb and I wanted the sour flavor to still come through. I also had to be careful not to add too much sugar, which can mess with the crumb. This recipe has just enough sweetness that you can consider it a dessert, but you can also still justify eating the bread for breakfast.

Added nonfat milk powder: In doing a bit of research, I learned that adding milk powder to sourdough can make the loaf a bit softer with a tender and springy crumb and can add a subtle dairy flavor.

Sprinkles incorporated at the right time: I played around with when to add the rainbow sprinkles to the dough so that they would be evenly distributed and bleeding and burning would be reduced. Adding them during the late folds is what worked best.

Vanilla and butter extracts used: In order to achieve that beloved funfetti flavor without adding more sugar, I used both vanilla and butter extract. Despite what I would normally recommend, imitation vanilla is what works best here!

Cooking temp and time adjusted: The oven temperature and lid-off cooking time had to be reduced for this recipe since the added sugar and sprinkles are prone to browning very quickly.

Optional vanilla icing: If you want to add a bit more sweetness and dessert-like quality to the bread, I highly recommend drizzling on a vanilla icing when it's cooled. If you want your bread to be just *slightly* sweet, leave it off.

🗒 Ingredients

Here's everything you need for this funfetti sourdough recipe (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this page for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Water: 80-85 degrees F
• Granulated sugar
• Vanilla extract: I recommend imitation vanilla extract
• Butter extract
• Active sourdough starter
• Bread flour
• Nonfat milk powder
• Salt
• Rainbow sprinkles

Of course, the most important ingredient is your sourdough starter! I was lucky enough to get a very active and healthy starter from my sister earlier this year.

I recommend feeding it before you use it. If you're using it in the morning, feed it the night before. If you're starting your bread baking process in the afternoon, feed it in the morning.

🍞 Recipe tips

• Since this funfetti sourdough bread is a multi-day process with specific timing requirements, I recommend starting the bread in the morning and cold proofing it overnight. Then you'll be ready to bake the bread first thing the next morning!

• Before doing anything, put your rainbow sprinkles in a small bowl, toss them with about 1 teaspoon flour, and pop them in the freezer. This will help your sprinkles distribute better with less color bleeding then you add them to the dough during your stretch and folds.

• I almost always recommend using pure vanilla extract, but for this recipe imitation vanilla extract will really bring out the funfetti flavor. A little bit of utter extract helps, too.

• Be sure to use bread flour for your dough as it will help strengthen gluten and build a stronger bread structure.

• I recommend doing 4 stretch and folds of dough, 30 minutes apart, during bulk Be sure you're not overworking the dough.

• Add sprinkles when you're doing the 3rd stretch and fold during the bulk fermentation process. Try to mostly keep sprinkles covered as exposed sprinkles will cause the bread to darken quickly when baking.

• After, the final stretch and fold, your dough will likely need about 4-8 hours to finish bulk fermentation. So many factors are involved, so it's hard to give an exact time. I find this dough definitely takes on the longer side for me. Here's what to watch for to know if your dough is ready for the next step:
  • Dough should increase about 75% in size
  • It should be jiggly (like Jell-O) and bubbly at edges
  • It should have a slightly domed center
  • Press the dough gently with a lightly floured finger- If it springs back slowly and leaves a soft impression, the dough is likely ready
  • It smells yeasty and lightly tangy

• After bulk fermentation, you'll prep the dough for the cold proof. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and do what is often called a "hot dog fold." Gently stretch and pat the dough ball into a soft rectangle taking care not to totally deflate it. Fold the dough like a hot-dog roll (starting with the long edge closest to you, fold ⅓ of the dough towards the middle, and then the other top ⅓ of the dough towards the middle to overlap the first folded layer). Then you want to form the dough into a taut round using a bench scraper to rotate and drag the dough toward you to help build a tight skin. Transfer the dough to bowl, seam-side up.

• I recommend using a kitchen towel or a banneton in the bowl for the cold proof.
  
• The dough needs at least 8 hours in the fridge, but it can stay in the fridge for up to 18 hours, which gives you some flexibility for when you want to do the final bake!

• I like to uncover the bowl in the fridge for the last 30 minutes to help dry the skin a bit, making scoring easier.

• For funfetti sourdough, I recommend doing on clean score at a 40 degree angle. I experimented a lot with this and two scores generally exposes too many sprinkles in the dough.

• The baking temperature and timing was definitely the aspect I experimented the most with during this recipe testing. I initially started with my traditional sourdough loaf temperature and time, but since there's some sugar in the dough and in the sprinkles, the bread burned pretty quickly, so I had to play around with lowering temperature and timing, but still getting a golden bread the best rise and crumb.

• I recommend preheating your oven to 475 degrees F and putting your dutch oven IN the oven while it's preheating. Once you put your bread in the dutch oven, cover it, and put it in your oven; turn temperature down to 450 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes and then remove the cover, turn the temperature down to 400 and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until bread is golden.

• You can use a thermometer to check the internal temperature of your bread. It's done when it reaches about 205-210 degrees F.

• If your bread needs more time to bake but is getting too dark on top, you can put the cover back on OR use you a thin strip of aluminum foil to tent the area that's browning too quickly.

• Let the loaf cool completely before frosting it. You don't have to frost it, but adding on that icing will give it more of a funfetti, dessert-like feel. You can add more rainbow sprinkles, too.

And you're finally ready to slice the bread and see that beautiful funfetti sprinkle dispersion!

I'm thrilled with how my loaves of funfetti sourdough bread have been coming out with this recipe. And I'm now at the point where I can make it in my sleep!

It's so perfectly tender and I love the combination of sour tang with sweetness.

The sweetness is fairly discrete if your bread isn't iced and I wouldn't even call this a dessert bread. It's more like a slightly sweet (really pretty!) sourdough bread.

But the icing on top definitely brings it to sweet treat levels.

⏲️ How to store

Funfetti sourdough bread should keep fresh for about 3 days when stored at room temperature loosely wrapped in foil or in a paper bag. You can even purchase reusable bread bags.

It's also easy to freeze sourdough bread either in a whole loaf or after slicing. I recommend wrapping the loaf or slices in foil or plastic wrap and putting them in a freezer-safe Ziplock bag.

I recommend waiting to add icing until you're ready to eat the bread, but you can freeze it when it's frosted if you want.

☀️ Sample timeline

Because the bread requires certain steps done at certain times, it's best to plan ahead. Here's a sample schedule that will make it easy for you. Of course, this can be adjusted as needed:

• 9:00 a.m.: Mix dough together
• 9:30-11:00 a.m.: Stretch and fold every 30 mins. Add sprinkles on 3rd round
• 1:30-5:30 p.m.: Check for signs of bulk fermentation, which can take anywhere from 4-8 hours. Dough should increase about 75% in size and be jiggly and bubbly at edges, with a slightly domed center
• 1:30-5:45: When bulk fermentation is finished, pre-shape dough, let rest, hot dog fold and final shape, and put in fridge
• Next morning: Preheat oven, score bread, and bake

If you're looking for something a bit more exciting than the average loaf of bread, this funfetti sourdough is it!

Let me know if you make a loaf of your own in the comments below.

And thank you to Taylor Swift for this fabulous recipe inspiration!

📖 Recipe