A few days ago, when making dumpling wrappers at home, I came across a tutorial online about using fresh spinach to turn dumpling skins green. I really liked the idea of using natural foods as colorants instead of artificial dyes. It sparked a sudden thought: could I try this exact same trick with bread dough? Today, I decided to head into the kitchen and find out.

Not long ago, I made Tangzhong Bread using a recipe I found on YouTube. Today, I used the same base recipe, but with one small experiment: I quickly blanched fresh spinach in boiling water, tossed it into a food processor with a bit of water, and blended it into a rich green juice. I used this spinach juice to replace the milk in the dough.

I was a bit curious whether the spinach juice would interfere with the yeast or change how the dough rose. To my pleasant surprise, fermentation wasn’t affected at all—everything puffed up just as nicely as before. After kneading in the mixer, the dough had a lovely pastel green color and rose into a soft, smooth mound.

Once the first rise was done, I transferred the dough onto a lightly floured mat and gently shaped it into an even log.

I then used my bench scraper to divide the dough into smaller portions.

With the dough pieces ready on the mat, I decided to do what I did on my previous bake: make some dinner rolls alongside a classic Pullman loaf.

For the dinner rolls, I rounded them into neat balls and spaced them out on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper for their final proof.

For the toast loaf, each dough piece needed to be rolled out, folded, and shaped into a snug roll. I set up my phone and recorded a quick clip of myself rolling and shaping one of the portions:

All three rolled dough cylinders went right into the Pullman tin side-by-side for proofing.

Both bakes turned out really nicely. The dinner rolls came out with a glossy, golden-brown top and a soft crumb inside.

The Pullman loaf baked into clean, defined square edges, showing subtle green swirls along the crust as it cooled down on the rack.

For me, real happiness comes from taking something you’ve learned and putting it to use in everyday life. A little experiment like this makes baking fun and brings more color to ordinary days.