Soft and fluffy mini bubble bread with their vibrant rainbow colors are fun to make and eat. The shape is also inspired by the popular Pop It Fidget Toy.
Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Knead on medium speed until the dough is soft and stretchy, about 5 minutes. If you knead by hands, may take 15-20 minutes
Divide the dough into two portions. I made two large round bubble bread because my baking sheet is not big enough to accommodate two round bubble bread on the same tray. You can just make one large one and it can be the shape of your rectangle baking sheet if you don't want it round. I've made hexagon shape before too. It's up to you
Divide the dough into 6 portions: 150 grams dough, 2 of 140 grams dough, 3 of 90 grams dough. They don't have to be exact. The colors depends on which color you want to be the most dominant
Color the dough:
Keep the dough cover. Get one dough and put one or two drops of the gel food coloring of your choice. Stretch one side of the dough and fold over and go around and do this stretch and fold over and you will see the color will gradually distribute evenly. I found that this is the easiest to incorporate color into the dough. Keep them covered
First proofing:
Once you have all six doughs colored, cover them and let them proof for 45 minutes to 1 hour at a warm place or until they are puffy. They may not double in size, but should be light and puffy
Shaping:
Work with one dough at a time, start with the dominant color you choose (large dough) and keep the rest covered. Portion out about 10 grams of mini dough and use your fingers to stretch and tuck the dough under to get a smooth round dough. Arrange the mini dough as shown in the photo if you want a round shape on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. I put the dough a bit too far from each other. You can put them a bit closer, about 1/8 inch apart, almost touching each other but not quite
You may end up with some extra doughs that don't fit into the shape you are making. Simply bake them on the same tray separately. I'm sure no one minds eating those too
Repeat with the second dough if you are making two
Second proofing:
Keep them covered again and let them rise for the second time, about 1 hour at a warm place. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C) 15 minutes before the end of proofing. My oven uses bottom heat only and no fan
Baking:
Bake the bread at the middle rack for 15 minutes. If you are baking two trays, put one in the middle and the other one on the lower rack. One tray a bit more to the front and the other one to the back so they are not directly on top of each other, to allow some air flow
For this rainbow bread, we don't want to brown the bread so, you may want to start watching the bread at about 10 minute-mark and tent the bread with a foil (shiny side up) if they start to get brown. If you bake two trays, rotate the tray front to back and then top to bottom halfway through baking
Remove from the oven and immediately brush with some butter on top. The butter will melt as you brush it on the warm bread. This will give the bread a soft texture on top instead of being crusty
Cooling:
Transfer to a cooling rack. You can serve them warm or room temperature