Stuff these freshly baked Crescent Roll Cornucopia with Cranberry Turkey Salad for a Thanksgiving brunch or lunch. Your family will love this festive holiday meal.
Crescent Roll Cornucopia with Cranberry Turkey Salad
What do you do with all your leftover turkey on Thanksgiving weekend? I love to dice some of the white meat and toss it with dried cranberries, celery, toasted almonds, and mayonnaise then stuff it inside freshly baked Crescent Roll Cornucopia to serve for brunch or lunch.
I baked up my first batch of these crescent roll cornucopia back in 2013 after my Crescent Roll Carrots became really popular. So many of you made those carrots that I figured you'd enjoy a similar recipe for Thanksgiving.
When I made the carrot-shaped crescent rolls I wrapped strips of Pillsbury Crescent Dough Sheets around metal cream horn forms then colored them with some orange food coloring and baked them until golden brown. I served them filled with egg or ham salad.
These made for a really unique meal to serve for Easter and I knew I could use a similar technique to make cornucopia shaped crescent rolls for Thanksgiving.
You can see another version of this recipe over at Tablespoon.com that I originally posted in November 2013.
The cornucopia is made just like my Crescent Roll Carrots but instead of using a cream horn form to shape my crescent rolls, I covered some sugar cones in tin foil then wrapped the crescent roll dough around them.
I realized that although cream horn forms are really pretty inexpensive that many of you might not want to purchase them for one recipe or project. So you can grab some sugar cones and non-stick tin foil instead.
How to make mock cream horn forms:
- Cut off a piece of non-stick tin foil and set the non-stick side facing the table.
- Place a sugar cone at an angle in one corner and begin wrapping the foil around the cone.
- Roll the cone towards you until it curves around and is completely covered in tin foil.
- Cut off all but about 2 inches of the foil that comes out over the opening of the sugar cone.
- Push the foil down into the cone.
Roll dough around the cone.
- Open and unroll a Pillsbury Crescent Roll Dough Sheet tube.
- Cut the dough into a rectangle.
- Cut 8 strips from the dough.
- Cut 2 of those strips in half.
- Wrap the 6 full-size strips around the tin foil wrapped sugar cones.
- Start by wrapping the end of a strip around the pointed end of the cone, leaving a bit of dough hanging off the end.
- Continue to roll the cone wrapping it with dough, stretching the dough while you roll.
- Press down on the end of the strip making sure it is attached well.
- Add a braid of dough around the opening (see below).
Add a braided band around the cornucopia.
- Twist two of the half-sized strips together then cut that into three pieces.
- Beat together 1 teaspoon of water with an egg to make some egg wash.
- Brush a light coating of egg wash around the edge of the crescent roll cone then wrap one of the twisted strips around it, cutting off any excess and pinching the seams together.
- Repeat.
Line the pan.
- Line a baking pan with non-stick tin foil.
- Set the six crescent roll wrapped cones on the pan.
Curve up the tip of the cornucopia.
- If you'd like your cornucopia to have a curved tip, roll up some tin foil and set it under the tips.
- I found it easiest to cut pieces of the tin foil then fold in the rough edges so you have a nice smooth piece to work with.
- Then wrap the foil around a pen.
- Remove the pan and set the tube of foil under the tip of the crescent roll.
- You may need to flatten the foil slightly to get the dough to stay in place.
Add egg wash.
- Brush the tops and sides of the crescent roll cornucopia with egg wash.
- This will give the dough a shine once baked.
Chill
- Refrigerate the cornucopia for 30 minutes.
- This will ensure the crescent dough will bake up nice and fluffy.
Bake.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Bake the cornucopia for 10-12 minutes until they are golden brown.
- Remove and let cool for 10 minutes.
Remove crescent rolls from the cone.
- Gently hold the crescent roll cornucopia and pull the sugar cone out.
- Let them cool completely.
- You can store them for up to a day in an airtight container but they are best served the day they are made.
Make cranberry turkey salad.
- Dice about ¾ of a pound of turkey into small cubes.
- Combine the turkey with dried cranberries, chopped celery, toasted almond slivers, and mayonnaise or Miracle Whip.
- Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
Fill the cornucopia.
- Fill the cornucopia with the turkey salad.
- Place a crescent roll cornucopia on a dinner plate and add more turkey salad so that it looks like there is an abundance of food flowing out of the opening.
- NOTE: These taste best if filled just before serving but you can fill them and refrigerate them for up to a day.
Crescent Roll Cornucopia Video

Wrap strips of crescent roll dough around a cone to create Crescent Roll Cornucopia that can be filled with Cranberry Turkey Salad for Thanksgiving brunch or lunch.
- 1 tube Pillsbury Crescent Roll Dough Sheets (or use 1 sheet of puff pastry)
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1 egg
- ¾ pound turkey, diced
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries
- 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons toasted almond slivers*
- ½ cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
-
Unroll dough then cut into 8 long strips.
-
Use 6 of those strips to wrap around either cream horn forms or sugar cones that have been wrapped in non-stick tin foil.
-
Cut the remaining two strips in half lengthwise.
-
Twist two of those strips together then cut into three equal lengths then repeat with the other two strips of dough.
-
Whisk together the water and egg then brush the egg wash over the opening of each crescent roll cone and wrap one of the twisted strips around that edge.
-
Set the cone on a tin foil (preferably non-stick) lined baking sheet. If desired set the tip of the cones under a roll of tin foil.
-
Repeat making a total of 6 crescent roll cornucopia.
-
Brush egg wash over the tops and sides of each crescent roll cornucopia.
-
Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
-
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
-
Let cool for 10 minutes then gently twist them off the foil lined cones.
-
Toss together the diced turkey, dried cranberries, celery, toasted almond slivers, and mayonnaise.
-
Spoon some of the turkey salad into a crescent roll cornucopia then set it on a plate and add more turkey salad coming out of the cornucopia.
- These are best served the day they are made but can be refrigerated for up to a day.
- You can bake these crescent rolls in advance and store them in an airtight container for a day.
- Refrigerate the turkey salad until you are ready to serve the cornucopia.
You can also use the same dough to create these other festive holiday crescent roll recipes.
Crescent Roll Recipes
Crescent Roll Leaves • Witch Hat Appetizers
Green Pesto Crescent Roll Trees • Snowflake Crescent Roll Doughnuts
Mediterranean Pinwheel Appetizer • Crescent Roll Carrots
Veggie Pizza Carrots • Crescent Roll Easter Eggs filled with Cheesy Eggs
Be sure to check out all of my amazing Thanksgiving Recipes
- Homemade Chocolate Easter Bunnies - April 3, 2023
- Mini Basketball Cheeseburgers - February 15, 2023
- Snowman Popcorn Bucket - December 24, 2022
Katie
Any ideas for a vegetarian version? (besides egg salad, which I'm not sure everyone likes)
Beth
Hi Katie,
I'm not terribly familiar with vegetarian cooking but I did a quick search and found a recipe for Cranberry Walnut Vegan "Chicken Salad" and some other similar recipes made using chickpeas. I'm sure there are other vegetarian options but I'm just not aware of them. I have made them with egg salad (my Crescent Roll Carrots that look like carrots instead of cornucopia) and they taste great.
Judith Reed
Loved the easy instructions for the cones for the salad. Great idea and can see many uses for it.
Beth
I'm so glad!
Karen @ Sugartown Sweets
I have been missing all your cute and delicious creations! I loved your orange carrots and your cornucopias are adorable!! Happy Thanksgiving, Beth!
Beth
I was out of the country for three weeks in October so things have been a bit slow around here recently. I'm glad you stopped by to check out these Crescent roll Cornucopia. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving too.
Netasha Patywich
This could also be made as a dessert by brushing it with melted butter and shaking on sugar and cinnamon before baking then filling it with yoghurt or custard or ice cream and fruit.
Beth
Yum, that would be fun too. I made some carrot shaped crescent roll cream horns last year and they made a great dessert. I think adding cinnamon sugar would really add a nice touch of sweetness. Thanks for the idea:)
Karen Goodman
I saw you linked up this recipe at Melt in Your Mouth linky party last week. It would be perfect for my new link party posted today which features turkey recipes. I hope you'll stop by and post it along with any other turkey recipes you have. You can find the party here:
http://futureexpat.com/2013/11/required-ingredient-turkey/
Constance Gammeter
Yum, I'm going to pin it. I also added you to my g+ friends.
beth
Thanks for pinning and joining me on Google +.
Luisa
How unique! Such a great idea 🙂 Visiting from Motivate Me Monday
Kalamity Kelli
That is so impressive! What a great presentation and I was thinking how lovely that would be at a fall bridesmaid luncheon!
Krista Rollins
Love this idea, not only is it beautiful but great way to use up leftover turkey. I always put cranberries in my chicken salad so this recipe is perfect! 🙂 YUM Pinning!
Krista @ Joyful Healthy Eats
beth
Thanks, Krista. I was surprised how much I loved the addition of the cranberries to the turkey salad. Next time I make chicken salad, I'm going to toss some in! Thanks for the pin:)
nana
they are so cool
The Partiologist
Beth, these are so beautiful - what a WOW factor on any table!