I’ve been eager to share this recipe for weeks! When I first started planning my Phantom of the Opera menu, I came across this recipe from Eat the Dead, and it was just too perfect to pass up. The black and red color scheme and wicked theme made them just the side dish I needed!
They may look complicated, but they’re actually very easy to make. Just whip up your favorite bread dough (I used a basic bun recipe I developed for my cookbook) and create a black rice flour mix to go on top. Spread on the topper, bake, and you’re all set to enjoy some piping hot bits of brimstone! 🙂
A
Brimstone Bread
At that moment, at that identical moment, the terrible thing happened… Carlotta croaked like a toad:
“Co-ack!”
There was consternation on Carlotta’s face and consternation on the faces of all the audience. The two managers in their box could not suppress an exclamation of horror. Every one felt that the thing was not natural, that there was witchcraft behind it. That toad smelt of brimstone. Poor, wretched, despairing, crushed Carlotta!
— The Phantom of the Opera
INGREDIENTS:
- For the Red Buns
- ¼ cup very warm water
- ½ cup room temperature milk
- 1 packet (7 grams) active dry yeast
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- 8 drops red gel food coloring
- 2¾ cups flour
- For the Black Topping
- 1½ cups rice flour
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup warm water
- 16 drops black gel food coloring
Makes 16 buns
INSTRUCTIONS:
-
- To make the red buns, first stir together the water and milk in the bowl of a standing mixer. Sprinkle the yeast on top and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Add the butter, egg, salt, sugar, and red coloring to the bowl. Beat on medium-low speed with a paddle attachment for 30 seconds or until the butter is broken up into pieces. Gradually beat in the flour on medium speed until just combined.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until it is soft, mostly smooth, and only slightly sticky (approximately 5-8 minutes). You may need to periodically reflour the surface to keep the dough from sticking.
- Coat a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough inside, turning once to coat. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen cloth and allow to rise for 1 hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.
- Punch down the dough and set aside. Line two baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper. Separate the dough into 16 balls of equal size, placing them an equal distance apart on the baking sheets. Cover and allow to rise for another 45 minutes.
- While you wait, start on the black topping by stirring together the rice flour, yeast, sugar, vegetable oil, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir the black coloring into the warm water and beat the water into the flour mix with a hand mixer on medium speed. Cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes (by the time it’s done, the red buns should be finished rising too).
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Scoop 2 spoonfuls of black mix over each bun.
The recipe I used said to spread on the topping with your hands, but mine was too liquidy for that. It still cracked properly in the end, though, so I didn’t feel a need to change it. - Bake for 10-15 minutes, flipping and rotating the pans halfway through. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. If desired, trim the black edges where the topping slid to the bottom.
- Serve warm at the premiere of the Phantom’s latest operatic performance!
If you love this Brimstone Bread,
check out my recipe for Dracula’s Dinner Rolls
in my cookbook, A LITERARY HOLIDAY COOKBOOK! 🙂
This is such a neat Halloween treat! 😀
storitorigrace.blogspot.com
Thank you! When I saw it on Pinterest for the first time, I was like, “This is way too perfect! It has to be in the menu.”
Looks brilliant and thank you for the link back!
No problem! It was so fun to make. Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you so much! This will be a great addition to our family and friends Hallowwen get together. We have done it fir about 16 years and our granddaughter now insists its a tradition!
Sounds like fun! 😀
[…] will have a devil of a time saying “no” to these brimstone bread loaves from Alison’s Wonderland Recipes. Just remember what they say about eating something from the underworld…I mean, look what […]
Can you make a corn bread like this?
Hmm…I’m thinking probably not. Since cornbread makes more of a batter than a shapeable dough, you’d have to pour it in a pan and spread the rice flour paste on top (which I don’t think would have enough room to spread to get big enough cracks). You can certainly try it though! If it works out, let me know. 🙂
Fantastic recipe! We just made this for our Halloween party and it came out great. The recipe was easy to follow with perfect results. Thanks!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks so much for stopping by! 😀
[…] Black paste recipe adapted from Wonderlandrecipes […]
[…] Black paste recipe adapted from Wonderlandrecipes […]
[…] From: WonderlandRecipes […]
I love these and want to try them out. I wonder how we could make cookies with a similar technique- they would be a big hit in my middle school library!
Brimstone cookies sound AWESOME! A recipe for red crinkle cookies might work. Usually those are coated with powdered sugar to get the signature craggy look, but you could darken the powdered sugar with powdered food coloring. Or maybe even activated charcoal!
So funnily enough, my red dough was quite sticky and needed quite a bit more flour and my black rice dough was not runny and had to be spread with an offset spatula… which sort of deflated the buns. Might try more liquid next time to make it runnier! Thank you for the recipe. Its very cool!!
Hmm…I wonder if maybe the water measurements for the red dough and rice dough got reversed? That might explain it. Hope it works out better for you next time!
I couldn’t find rice flour. Would coconut flour work?
I’ve never worked with coconut flour so I can’t say for sure, but based on what I’ve read, it probably wouldn’t work in this circumstance because it’s more absorbent (it might not crack properly). You should be able to order rice flour on Amazon though.
Hi! Found this amazing looking recipe but didn’t have time to make them for Halloween, so my 6 yr old thought we could make them like little earths instead… turned out pretty cool I think. (Sorry can’t seem to post a photo here) Thank you!!
That’s so cool! I love seeing people get creative with the color choices.
Does this work if I have instant yeast? That’s all our store seemed to have now 🙁 This will be my first time with yeast, so if it will work, will you let me know if the amounts or any steps change?? Thank you!!!
I’ve never tried it, but it should be ok. You’ll want to reduce the amount of yeast by about 25% and skip letting the yeast sit for 5 minutes. Other than that, the rest of the recipe should be the same. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
I don’t have rice flour can I use cake flour ?
I apologize for the late reply. Things have been so crazy around here the past few months! Cake flour wouldn’t be a good substitute in this case, since the rice flour creates a dryer, crunchier crust more prone to cracking (the cake flour most likely wouldn’t crack). Hope this helps!
This was amazing. The black turned out really dark and coal-like (more so then the pictures). The red turned out pink. It was really fluffy and slightly sweet. The black wasn’t really crunchy like expected but was a little soft actually.
Thanks for the feedback! So glad you liked it. 🙂
Awesome!!! We made it into volcanic lava rock brad for my volcano obsessed little!
[…] bland at a Halloween party.GET THE FULL RECIPE HERE.Recipe reprinted courtesy of Eat the Dead and Alison’s Wonderland Recipes.Recipe […]
I made these, to go with chili, on Halloween. They came out perfect!!! I looked all over for a complete scratch recipe, and found yours. I didn’t want to use a box of instant no kneed bread. My family LOVED them. Nice little crunch on the mochi exterior, soft and fluffy red interior. I used Ann Clark colors and Omg, beautiful. Thank you for this recipe! It surely will be made again!