There is something special about baking bread…It’s warm…cozy…inviting…an act of love. Now, if I can have all of that AND help make a holiday even more special and memorable for my children, wow..talk about a happy mom! Hannah and I found this recipe last year in one of her cookbooks (Alpha Bakery ~ from Gold Medal Flour). Once a week, as part of our school activities, she is allowed to choose any recipe from a cookbook and make it with me. Since choosing this recipe, we have made it probably a dozen times in just as many shapes. I immediately thought of this quick and easy bread (yep, said quick and easy) for our St. Patrick’s Day dinner! We don’t care for traditional Irish food, so I thought some green shamrock bread sounded just right!

Skeptical of green bread? Fear not! This bread was super cute and had the same great taste as plain bread.

Here is what you’ll need to prepare this treat!

3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 pkg. (or 2 1/4 t) active dry yeast (check the date!)

1 T sugar

1 t salt

1/2 c water

1/3 c milk

1 T margarine or butter

1 egg

green food coloring

First, mix 1 1/2 cups of the flour together with the yeast, sugar and salt.

Heat the water, milk, and margarine in the microwave for 1 minute. Add to the yeast and flour mixture and stir well.


Add the egg and stir well.

Add in your food coloring. The vibrancy of the green you will achieve will depend on how many drops of food coloring you add. We opted to create a fairly vibrant green bread. (It’s just more fun.)

Here is what our dough looked like after we added in the food coloring. At this point, add in your remaining flour. Your dough should be easy to handle, though it may still be slightly sticky.

Sprinkle flour onto your counter-top, and turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Keep adding flour to your dough as needed, while you are kneading. You will want your dough to be smooth and elastic. It should look like this when you are done.

Cover this dough and let it rest for about 10 minutes.  Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Shape your dough into three balls and a long stem.  Form a shamrock with your dough, and place it onto your greased cookie sheet.

Cover, and let rise for 20 minutes. Here is what our shamrock looked like after it had risen.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake your bread for approximately 20 minutes, or until lightly golden and baked through. Doesn’t our finished shamrock bread look delicious!?

So tasty! This bread is so good, and can be shaped into almost anything! Have fun baking. Bake with your child as often as you can! Cooking creates memories and helps ready your child for adulthood! Happy cooking!