Friday, November 26, 2010

Edible Cornucopia


When it comes to the holidays, I love to cook and bake as much as physically possible. And I always love to make the traditional food we eat, but I like to make something different too. When I came across, this idea to use dough to make a cornucopia, I fell in love! I knew it was the perfect recipe for the What's Baking Thanksgiving Challenge hosted by Catherine this month!


I decided to use a basic pizza dough recipe just with a little extra flavor instead of bread dough. And since things tend to get a little extra busy, I opted for using the bread machine to make my dough while I concentrated on other holiday tasks. I made two batches of dough and made two different sizes. The first was small, about 8 inches and I had enough dough left over to make about 4 breadsticks. The second was about 15 inches long.

4 cups of flour or bread flour if you have some on hand
1 1/4 cup water
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepperoncino flakes
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp active dry yeast

You will also need:
poster board
tape (heat resistant)
foil
parchment
stapler
cooking spray


1. Place all dry ingredients(minus yeast) into bread maker and then add the wet ingredients on top. Put the yeast into the yeast dispenser and set to pizza dough and go! Follow the instructions on your specific bread machine in case they differ.

2. While the dough is mixing, time to get the supplies ready to build the cone which the dough will bake on. First, decide on the desired size for your cornucopia. Form your poster board into a cone shape and secure with heavy duty, heat resistant tape. Cut the excess poster board so that it can stand freely.

3. Next, start covering the outside of your cone with foil. Then crumple up extra foil and stuff it into the cone to help to retain its shape. Then staple a small piece of parchment paper to cover the opening of the cone so that the foil stays in place.

4. Now it's almost time to start. Lay a sheet over parchment paper on a baking sheet and stand your cone on it. Spray the cone down with baking spray to allow for easier release.

5. Time to start building your cornucopia! Roll the dough into stands which you will coil up the cone starting at the base and working your way to the top. The first piece I used two strands twisted together to make the rim of the opening more pronounced. Then, keep spiraling more dough up the length of the cone until your reach the top. Using a little extra dough, form a curved tail.

6. Lay your cone down on the baking sheet with the sealed edge of the rim facing down. Bake it in the oven at 400 for about twenty minutes. Then take it out and, using tongs, remove the cone from inside the cornucopia. Be very gentle! It helps if you pull out the foil stuffing from the cone first. Then return to the oven for another twenty minutes to fully cook the inside. If your cone becomes more golden or darker than the your desired color, cover it foil on the outside only.

7. Let cool slightly and then serve! I used marinara sauce and spinach artichoke dip to accompany mine. Recipe for those to come soon!

1 comment:

  1. Very, very cool idea. I've never seen an edible cornucopia. But why not???

    e-Mom @ Susannah's {Kitchen}

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