Get creative in the kitchen by making these Crescent Roll Carrots to serve at Easter brunch or lunch. These carrot-shaped crescent rolls can be filled with your favorite egg salad or ham salad and decorated with a sprig of dill or parsley to add a festive touch to your holiday meal.
Originally posted on April 8, 2011
Crescent Roll Carrots - Fun Easter Meal
Your Easter brunch or dinner will be extra special this year if you serve these festive Crescent Roll Carrots filled with egg salad or ham salad. This food craft is so much fun to make, can be enjoyed by the entire family, and will make a great addition to your Easter buffet menu. I've served this cute Easter meal so many times over the years and everyone loves it.
I created this fun crescent roll recipe for Easter back in 2011. I had only been blogging for a short time and knew immediately after making these using Pillsbury Crescent Rolls that they would be a hit with my family and with my readers.
That Easter, my email box was flooded with pictures and stories from readers who had recreated the Crescent Roll Carrots for their own Easter celebrations. I was thrilled. I started adding their pictures to this post, then soon after, in a new Readers' Gallery
I kept this recipe pretty simple by using a Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet, cutting it into six strips, rolling each strip into a log, then wrapping the strips around metal cream horn forms, brushing them with orange food coloring, and baking them in the oven until golden brown. After removing the pastry from the metal form, I filled some with egg salad and others with ham salad. A few sprigs of dill completed the effect.
I really like how my carrots are bright orange, but I know some people might have issues using straight food coloring on the dough. You can, if you prefer, just brush them with egg wash and bake them to a golden brown. They won't have quite the same effect, but will still look great. I tried adding a small amount of food coloring to the egg wash, but the color didn't show up once baked.
You can also use an all natural orange food coloring. The color isn't quite as vibrant but your crescent rolls will definitely look like carrots.
Carrot Crescents filled with your favorite egg or ham salad
Ingredients:
1 tube Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Crescent Seamless Dough Sheet*
1 egg (whisked with 1 teaspoon of water to make an egg wash)
yellow and red liquid food coloring (the kind from the grocery store is fine for this recipe)
1 ½ cups of your favorite egg or ham salad
1 bunch of fresh dill or parsley
Special Equipment Needed:
pizza cutter or knife
6 metal cream horn molds
pastry brush
non-stick aluminum foil-lined baking sheet
*If you can't find this product, you can use sheets of puff pastry, or use crescent rolls and pinch all the seams together.
Instructions:
Step 1: Cut Pillsbury Crescent Dough Sheet Into Strips
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Unroll the Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet onto a cutting board.
- Use a pizza cutter or a knife to cut the dough lengthwise into 6 equal strips.
- Brush one strip with egg wash.
Step 2: Roll Crescent Dough Into Tubes
- Roll the strip into a 17"-18" long log.
- I rolled the strip of dough up into a tube and pinched the seam shut. Then I rolled out the dough into a thinner, longer log by pushing and rolling the log with both hands.
- Repeat, brushing egg wash onto each dough strip before rolling each into logs.
- Create 6 logs.
Step 3: Wrap Dough Around Cream Horn Forms
- Wrap one crescent dough log around each cream horn mold, trying to keep the seam side against the metal mold.
- Repeat.
- Be sure your dough does not hang over the open end of the cream horn mold, as it will make it difficult to remove once baked.
Step 4: Color Dough Orange
- Line a baking sheet with non-stick aluminum foil or parchment paper (or use a non-stick pan).
- Squeeze about 60 drops of yellow liquid food coloring into a small bowl. Add two drops of red. Stir to create orange.
- Brush the orange food coloring all over each carrot-shaped dough. Set carrots on lined baking sheet.
If you don't want to paint your dough with food coloring, you can simply brush it with egg wash. The carrot will bake up golden brown.
Watch the video below to see how I used all-natural orange food coloring on one of the crescent roll carrots.
Step 5: Bake
- Bake for 6-8 minutes until golden brown.
- I suggest rotating the pan halfway through the baking cycle for even browning.
- Allow your carrot crescents to cool for about 5 minutes.
- Carefully remove the cream horn form by holding the carrot in one hand and using the other hand to twist the mold and gently pull it out.
Step 6: Fill the Crescent Roll Carrots with Your Favorite Egg Salad or Ham Salad and Sprigs of Dill or Parsley
- Spoon some egg salad or ham salad into the crescent roll cone until it's a bit overfilled.
- I simply stir some Miracle Whip into my diced eggs to make egg salad. The simple 2 ingredient egg salad is what I grew up eating and I still love it today.
- I buy my ham salad at my local gourmet grocery store. It's so good that I've never bothered making my own.
- If you have great egg salad and ham salad recipes, definitely use them!
- Press a few sprigs of dill or parsley into the egg salad for a decorative effect.
It's best to fill your carrots just before serving, but they will keep nicely for up to a few hours in the refrigerator. You can store any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to two days.
Video
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Items used to create this project that are available on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales at no extra cost to you).








Crescent Roll Carrots Recipe

- 1 tube Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Crescent Seamless Dough Sheet
- 1 egg whisked with 1 teaspoon of water
- orange or yellow and red liquid food coloring
- 1 ½ cups of your favorite egg or ham salad
- 1 bunch of fresh dill or parsley
-
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
Unroll the Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet onto a cutting board.
-
Cut the dough lengthwise into 6 equal strips.
-
Brush one strip with egg wash.
-
Roll the strips into a 17"-18" long log.
-
Wrap one dough log around each cream horn mold.
-
Repeat.
-
Line a baking sheet with non-stick aluminum foil or parchment paper.
-
Brush the orange food coloring over each carrot shaped dough.
-
Set carrots on lined baking sheet.
-
Bake for 6-8 minutes until golden brown.
-
Allow carrot crescents to cool for about 5 minutes.
-
Remove cream horn form and allow to cool completely.
-
Fill each Crescent Roll Carrot with egg salad or ham salad.
-
Add a few sprigs of dill coming out of the carrot.
-
Serve.
More Easter Edible Crafts
from Hungry Happenings
Down the Bunny Hole Push-up Pops
Sugar Spoon Chicks - tiny sugar eggs on spoons
If this Easter Recipe interests you, then you should go and check out all these other delicious ideas.
UPDATE:
I heard from so many people who were making this recipe for their Easter meal and some took pictures and posted them on their blogs. Whether you have a blog or not, if you made these and took some pictures, I'd love to see them. You can see more creations from my readers in my Readers' Gallery.
This idea has been translated in so many ways as you can see from the pictures below, and it is so wonderful for me to see how I inspired so many of you to make these for your families.
Risa from Restless Risa posted a few pictures of the carrots she served her family for Easter. She used frozen bread dough instead of crescents and lettuce in place of the dill. They look great. As you can see, you can really use whatever you have on hand. Most doughs will work for this recipe but just be aware that the yeast-type doughs will rise once they are wrapped around the cream horn forms which makes for carrots with fun curvy shapes. To top off the carrot, anything that is green and frilly could be used - try cilantro, thyme, or even spinach leaves.
Martha from Seaside Simplicity made her carrots by spraying Duff's Orange Cake Graffiti Spray on the dough and I think they look fantastic. Martha didn't have cream horn forms so she wrapped her dough around a sugar cone as I had suggested in the comments section of the blog post, and it worked. I'm happy to know that it was a success.
Shannon from Living My Life on Purpose did a fantastic job re-creating these carrots using Pillsbury Crescent Rolls which she pinched together at the seams before cutting into strips. She filled her Crescent Roll Carrots with chicken salad and added sprigs of curly endive lettuce.
Seeing someone from across the ocean create something based on one of my recipes is always such a huge thrill. Cinzia from Italy shared her version of the carrots on her blog, Mammarum. She used Puff Pastry to make her carrots, filled them with cream cheese, and used chives for the greens.
Joyce from What Happens at Grandma's hosted a "Bunny Village Workshop" hosted for her daughters and grandkids and served these chicken salad stuffed crescent carrots with parsley greens.
Mari from Inspired by Family Magazine created a really cool twist to this recipe; she made calzone carrots using homemade dough. I absolutely love this recipe.
Sylvia stuffed her carrots with scrambled eggs and sausage. Being the carrots aren't very big, they didn't hold much of chunky filling but she said they made a great breakfast. Her kids thought they were cute, even though they weren't sure about the orange color at first. Once they tasted them and realized they just tasted like croissants they really enjoyed them!
Rady from Byby's Kingdom made these really fun-looking carrots. I like how they have a striped look. She filled her carrots with egg salad and dill.
Mary served this basket full of carrot crescents to her family who gobbled them up immediately. Mary used Pillsbury Crescent Rolls which she just wrapped around the cream horn form before coloring orange. It's a bit simpler than cutting dough strips and gives a smoother look to the carrots.
Mary told me this recipe will become a new Easter tradition with her family!
Trish from Sweetology shared her carrots with her Facebook friends and said, "I whipped these up so easy from store-bought crescent rolls and homemade yummy ham salad..they will be a hit! CUTE."
Andrea made a really quick and easy version of the carrots. She used the big flaky crescents, rolled them just a bit straighter, baked them, and then cut them in half to fill them with the salad.
Jenn served up this bushel of carrots at her Easter celebration and said they were a huge hit!
Mandy was sure busy in the kitchen creating this amazing platter full of chicken salad-filled carrot crescents topped with curly parsley.
Jo and Sue created cones out of tin foil to make their carrots which they filled with salmon that their dad had smoked, and mixed with cream cheese. You should visit their blog to see more of their festive Easter treats. They really went all out for this holiday.
I am in awe of this gorgeous display that Ekaterina of My Candy Kitchen created with her carrot crescents. Just beautiful! She used pizza dough to make her carrots and covered her cream horn forms with parchment paper for easy removal.
Dina served these for Easter to her family in Hungary. She used puff pastry which worked out great. To make her orange coloring, she added red coloring to an egg yolk - brilliant!
I just love this image of the carrots created by Ilina from Culinary Colours of My World. She used pizza dough to create her carrots, filled them with a traditional Bulgarian salad, and added sprigs of lettuce for the greens.
I look forward to seeing how you use this idea to inspire you in the kitchen too!
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Jana
Those look awesome! What a fun idea!
JDaniel4's Mom
These are adorable! What a wonderful brunch idea!
Tenille
These are so cute. What a cute idea to do for Easter. Thanks for sharing. I would love if you could link this up to our linky party going on right now.
http://www.junkintheirtrunk.blogspot.com/2012/03/link-it-up-wednesday-21.html
Maria
Oh my goodness this is one of the cutest things I've ever seen!!!!! How cute and creative, I love it!!!!!!!! Awesome idea!!!! Thanks for sharing!
live by the sun, luv by the moon
OMG! This is the most adorable thing I've ever seen! My family would be so very impressed at Easter if I had these to serve! Oh my must give it a whirl!
Lindy@Itsy Bitsy Paper
How insanely amazing are these!!!! Wow, I just know everyone would go nuts when these were served. Pinning this for sure. I hope you'll link up to my Hippity Hop Easter Project Hop
http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/2012/03/hippity-hop-easter-project-hop.html
Erin Alldredge
These are absolutely adorable and a filling them with the egg salad sounds like a great way to use up some easter eggs. I'd love it if you stopped by my monthly link up to share this along with any thing else you would like to share. Found you on Chef in Training.
http://acraftycook.blogspot.com/2012/03/1-month-of-fun-march-link-party.html
Mama Jodi
What a clever, clever idea. Not a huge egg salad person, so I'll have to devise another filling. They're absolutely adorable though.
daneyb
I agree on the egg salad. Not a big fan. I'm thinking about making them sweet instead of savory. I'm going to play around with a "carrot cake-esque" filling. Cream cheese, raisins,a little grated carrot, ginger and sugar. Or maybe even a cake-pop filling of carrot cake mixed with cream cheese frosting.
Jen Lossing
These are so adorable! I am not much of a cook, but I think I might be able to give these a shot! Great job!!
Shantalle@lifestylesofthestayathomemom.com
I really love these! Best carrot sandwich I've ever seen. Pinning if I may!
Kati from Kati's Quilting
Wow, they sure look yummy! It's a great presentation for a party! 🙂 Wonderful idea!
Barb V
This is adorable and easy enough for me to try : ) I'm going to make them for my ladies bible study's spring brunch. Thanks so much! Love your blog!
Debbie @ Life is Sweets
This is amazing!! Can't wait to make these for my niece and nephews visiting for Easter Brunch!! I love your site. 🙂
Anonymous
very cool idea, contemplating it! :0)
Rose :: FineCraftGuild.com
These are very pretty ideas... Oh yes, we better get ready for Easter...
Tami
Just stopping by to let you know that I've featured another great craft on Fun Family Crafts! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/easter-carrot-crescents/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, I'd love it if you would submit them. 🙂 If you would like to display a
featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above.
Emily
Thank goodness for Pinterest! I never would have even thought of making something like this. I know what I'm doing for Easter!
april
So beautiful!
AbleApril
I might do these for breakfast w/scrambled eggs as that would be less work. 🙂 (Also arrived via Pinterest)
daneyb
Scrambled eggs! What a great idea! Happy Easter.
Anonymous
Looks fantastic...will give it a try this Easter!! Will use the sugarcone method. I just love making stuff for all occasions for my family...I am sure this will be a hit!! So happy to have your site!!