How to Make 3D Sourdough Art

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Looking to spruce up your sourdough? Try this 3D sourdough art technique where you mix flour, water, & salt, and then color it and create any design you want!

3D Sourdough art of Squidward Bold & Brash design

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I always look forward to making bread because not only do I get to eat it, I get to try out different scoring patterns, paint different designs, and now, my latest obsession—make 3D sourdough art.

I first saw this technique by Penny Che, who shared pictures of her beautiful loaves with 3D flowers on them. She mixed flour and water until the dough became clay-like, then colored it using different powders.

After seeing Penny’s posts, I knew I wanted to apply this technique to my own bread. Naturally, I decided to make one of my first loaves Spongebob-themed, hence the “Bold and Brash” art (pictured above).

So, if you’d like to learn how to add 3D designs onto your bread, keep on reading!

Table of Contents:

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Tutorial

It’s only 3 ingredients, and then any food coloring you want! Feel free to use natural food coloring, like beet powder, matcha, or cocoa. Or, opt-in for some gel food coloring.
You won’t need any special equipment. Simply knead and shape everything by hand.
You can create any design you want! Not feeling the Spongebob design? I don’t blame you. LOL. With free will… you can create anything—flowers, hearts, landscapes, or other memes.

What You’ll Need

To make 3D sourdough art, you’ll need the following:

Photo of my chocolate sourdough, then my split colored dough

Your favorite sourdough recipe. The sourdough should be towards the very end of its second rise. I like to create the 3D art while my baking vessel and oven preheat.
For the 3D sourdough art, all you’ll need is flour, water, salt, and food coloring.

For the full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.

💡 Baking Tip

Wear gloves! Kneading in food coloring into dough can easily dye your fingers. Wearing food-safe gloves help prevent that.

My unbaked chocolate sourdough with my Bold & Brash design on top.

“What is this abomination” – my Instagram followers

Side view of my sourdough, showing beautiful sourdough blisters!

3D Sourdough Art FAQs

Can you use this 3D sourdough art technique on other breads?

I’m sure this would work on many other types of breads, like sandwich loaves, rolls, and other artisanal breads! I haven’t tried it yet, but let me know in the comments if you have. 🙂

How are your colors so vibrant?

I used gel food coloring to get super vibrant colors.

It’s also important to note that if your 3D art is exposed to high temperatures over time, they will brown and fade. When I bake my 3D sourdough art, I keep the lid on my Dutch oven on the entire time. I haven’t noticed this affecting the texture at all—I still get super crusty bread.

Storage

Store your finished 3D bread art how you’d normally store your freshly baked bread! I personally like to pre-slice all of my sourdough and keep it in the freezer.