Beetroot Powder - Red Dye’s Healthy Twin!
There are so many things that never even crossed my mind before having kids. Red Dye 40 was one of them. Slurpies, OtterPops, RingPops… sign me up! Once I had my first baby girl, I would pay attention to the sugar content in foods but never really gave much notice to the other ingredients. Then L became sensitive to food coloring and that all changed. At first, it was hard to figure out since a sensitivity does not always present itself right away, nor does it always have in-your-face symptoms. She does not have an allergy - no redness, rash, swelling, hives. None of those tell-tale signs that her body doesn’t take well to dye. Instead, I started noticing behavior issues after having dye-heavy foods. Fits, anger, hysterical crying over minor issues. She did not seem in control of these outbursts and when I would ask her why she was crying, she would often respond with “I don’t know!” It was really hard to see.
Since researching the downsides of food coloring (and Red Dye 40 specifically) and finding that synthetic food coloring has been linked to agression, behavior issues and ADHD in children, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at finding a natural way to dye our baked goods.
The Test:
I am going to make natural pink dye (L’s favorite color!) using homemade, organic beetroot powder and bake it into cupcakes to see if it works! I’m also curious to know if it gives any beet-ish flavor to my cupcakes because, let’s be honest, nobody wants that :)
The Necessities:
1 organic red beetroot (if you’re like me, you’re probably wondering if beetroot is the same as a beet… save yourself a Google search - it is the same!)
Vegetable peeler
Cheese grater with option to grate very fine
Cutting board/bowl to catch beet shavings
Drying sheet
Coffee grinder or mortar/pestle
Small mesh strainer
Small container, like a 4 oz mason jar (a plastic baggie works just fine, too!)
Your favorite cupcake recipe (I used this one from Cake Me Home Tonight!)
The How-To:
Peel 1 organic beet and grate using the fine side of your cheese grater.
Lay beet shavings on your drying sheet (I got creative and used my husband’s gold-panning classifier! Anything that allows for airflow from bottom to top will work!).
Let shavings dry for 3-4 days, until fully dry and brittle. This wait was hard for me! I wanted them to be done right away and it took a solid four days for my beet shavings to be dry. You want them fully dry to ensure they don’t mold once in powdered form!
Grind dried beet shavings into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or mortar/pestle.
Strain the beet powder to ensure all larger chunks are removed. I used a silicone spatula to help me with this process! Once strained, you should have a very fine powder - deep red in color!
Mix one teaspoon of powder into two tablespoons of hot water to create a liquid dye.
Stir this dye into your favorite cake/cupcake mix before popping into the oven!
The Verdict:
This natural dye was the PERFECT color. I added just enough (about three teaspoons) to make our cupcakes a pretty pale pink - L couldn't have been happier! There was zero beet taste to our delicious cupcakes and, even better, zero Red Dye 40 behavioral issues!
The hardest part of this recipe was the beet powder making. Luckily, you can make this once and have it last for 2-3 months, or you can purchase organic beetroot powder to skip that step.
