Hello sweet friends!

Last week my kids and I were chatting about how totally cool it would be to have our very own leprechaun. Molly said she wanted a leprechaun to help play pranks, and to eat snacks with she and her friends.  I, on the other hand think that teaching a leprechaun to fold laundry and check math homework would be quite fantastic.  So in hopes of fetching our very own family leprechaun, we baked our own shortbread leprechaun traps just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day.

SHORTBREAD COOKIE TRAPS:

For the walls and roof of the leprechaun traps, we baked the easiest-ever shortbread cookies.  If you are short on time, (pardon the pun) shortbread cookies are absolutely perfect for you.  The dough is made up of four basic ingredients, and is even easier to work with than store bought dough.  Yep, that’s right.  This dough is easier to work with than pre-made dough.

For the decorations on each cookie, we used our go-to royal icing recipe, as well as sprinkles, gum drops, jelly beans, and gummies.  We basically tried to use our toppings as leprechaun bait, and what leprechaun doesn’t love jelly beans, gummies and sprinkles, right?

To hold the walls of the leprechaun traps together, we just spread a little bit of royal icing on the edge of two cookies and held them together until they stuck.  Easy peasy.

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Easy Shortbread Cookies

How to make easy and delicious shortbread cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (softened) butter
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a stand mixer, combine all of the ingredients.  Blend on a high speed for about five minutes.  It will seem as though the mixture will never come together, but just wait, the ingredients will eventually blend into perfect cookie dough.  
• Knead cookie dough and roll out onto a floured surface.  Cut desired shapes and place on a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly brown at the edges.  Let cook land decorate with royal icing or any other desired toppings.

A NEW SNEAKY FAMILY TRADITION HAS BEGUN:

Creating these shortbread cookie “traps” was fun and so much easier than I ever imagined.  In fact, we liked this recipe so much that we have started a new tradition.  A Saint Patrick’s Day tradition that we hope your kids will love just as much.

The night before Saint Patrick’s Day, the kids are going to set up their traps on the kitchen counter.  While confident that they are going to catch a new little friend, the great news here is that juuussstt in case they don’t, they can eat their sweet little traps on St. Patrick’s Day morning.   A happy ending, either way.

We hope find this recipe to be quite a treasure, and are lucky enough to catch your very own leprechaun later this week!

The post Leprechaun Traps! appeared first on Pie Crust and Pixie Dust.

In a total stroke of luck, my husband and I recently had the opportunity to take a road trip around the perimeter of Ireland.  During our trip, we toured castles, got pooped on by a fertilizer tractor (long story), saw countless cute little fat sheep, and met incredible people.  However one unexpected experience that we truly enjoyed, was getting to visit family owned bakeries all over the Emerald Isle.  Take a look at some of the sweet bakeries we visited along the way….

We loved how all of these bakeries varied in their style both inside and out.  However, despite their uniqueness from one another, it didn’t take long before we noticed one item that each bakery consistently had on hand… Irish Soda Bread.  I suddenly found myself on a quest to learn more about this tasty bread, and the story behind its rise in popularity across Ireland.

It turns out that Irish soda bread did not originate in Ireland, but became a staple of Irish kitchens and culture during The Potato Famine of 1845.  The bread was popularized due to it’s simple, widely accessible ingredients including baking soda as a leavening agent, versus yeast. Since the famine, Irish soda bread or “brown bread” has become a part of Irish culinary culture, and is considered a “kitchen table bread” in many homes.

Okay, time out.  Let’s just think about that for a moment….  This brown bread saved thousands of people from starvation. Imagine what it would have been like to raise a family in such difficult times.  What a bread… What an impact.  I couldn’t help but think that this was a recipe that I should try at home with my kids.  It is simple to prepare, and the history of the bread is something my kids needed to hear.

So in celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day this week, our family embarked on a soda bread baking adventure.  The recipe we put together was an accumulation of many different traditional soda bread recipes, but we added brown sugar and butter (because we’re southerners) to give the bread a hint of additional flavor and sweetness.  Sorry, Ireland!

This really was an easy and fun baking project for the kids and me.  The bread turned out great, and I whipped in a little history lesson for the #momwin!   My girls thought it was pretty cool that such a simple bread played such a significant part in saving families from hunger.  It turns out, you really can bake history!

Ireland is such a lovely place, and if you haven’t been you should go.  And if you do go, don’t forget to stop in a few bakeries along the way.  We hope baking this Irish soda bread recipe becomes a great Saint Patrick’s Day tradition for your family!

For more information, check out The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread.

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Irish Soda Bread

Simple Irish Soda Bread Recipe.  We love serving this traditional bread with butter and honey.

Ingredients

• 3 cups wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Combine dry ingredients in a stand mixer.
• Add in remaining ingredients and gently combine.
• Take dough out and carefully knead.
• Let chill for 30 minutes.
• Place dough in greased loaf pan and cover with foil.  
• Bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until a toothpick comes out dry.  

Tagged under: Irish Soda Bread Recipe

The post Easy Irish Soda Bread Recipe appeared first on Pie Crust and Pixie Dust.