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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Karen @ Sugartown Sweets says
Still love these amazing crescent roll carrots! I have no problem with using the food color..I love it! Happy Belated Easter, Beth! :o)
Beth says
They are one of my all time favorite food crafts I've created for Hungry Happenings. I'm so glad you love them! I hope you had a wonderful Easter too.
Rachel says
I love so much that you have adorable ideas for sweet AND savory treats. Your creativity is inspiring! Thank you for sharing it with us!
Beth says
Thanks, Rachel!
pictaram says
I love this idea! It must be fun to try it with the kids! Thank you very much!
Jamie says
These look amazing!! Definitely pinning to try. 🙂
Ivory says
OMG, you are so talent and creative. I got to join your site after seeing it. How amazing.
Marsha says
You are BRILLIANT!!! I've made several of your projects always to rave reviews and I'm excited to make these for a Bunco party. I need to make at least 2 dozen and am wondering how far in advance the horns can be filled without becoming soggy? I like to get as much done ahead as possible and the buffet ready when everyone arrives. Thank you so much for all your fun ideas and generosity in sharing them!
Beth says
Thanks so much!!! I am so happy to hear you have enjoyed several of my recipes and are planning to make these Crescent Roll Carrots.
The Crescent Roll Carrots are best if the crescents are made the day they are served, however, I've made these, filled them, served them, and had some left overs which I stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. They still tasted really good after two days. I'd add the greens just before serving so they look fresh though. I hope your Bunco group enjoys their fun lunch.
Marsha says
Thank you so much for your quick response, Beth! So, if I made the horns the day before and then filled them a couple of hours before the party, I'll be good? I think I might spread some butter on the inside of the horns to make a barrier so, hopeful, the horns Winn get soggy. Thanks again again fir being a great mentor! 😊
Beth says
Hi Marsha,
You should be fine! I'd love to hear how the butter works. I'm sure it will add a nice flavor. I hope your guests enjoy them.
Lesley says
Is the baking time correct on this? "Normal" crescent rolls take 10-12 minutes. I made these with the cream horn mold yesterday...mine needed 13 minutes before they were done. Also, I must stress spraying non stick spray on the foil OR just putting them on a non stick pan to bake (without using aluminum foil). Pillsbury's website was this recipe and they don't call for the foil.
Beth says
Yes, when the crescent rolls are on the metal cream horn forms the hot air helps cook the dough from the top and underside, so they don't take too long to bake. If you use tin foil, scrunched up, it might take longer. If you don't use non-stick tin foil, then spray is a very good idea.
SweetJ says
What a fantastic idea! The rolls themselves seem so versatile. You could fill them with something savory or sweet.
This post has been featured here > http://sweetmeetsbakeshop.com/2016/03/20/easter-cookie-nests-1-dough-5-ways-christian-to-secular-easter-traditions/
Happy Easter and keep on desserting!
Beth says
Thanks so much for the feature.
Richelle says
Just wondering if the food colouring stains after its baked, like on mouths and hands when eating them.
Beth says
Being the coloring is baked on, it does not come off on your hands. It will, however, turn your mouth kind of orange.
T says
This is a great idea. Are all molds the same size? Would you mind sharing your egg salad recipe?
Beth says
Thanks. Most cream horn molds are the same size or are at least similar enough that they will work with the recipe. To make my egg salad, I simple mix the eggs with Miracle Whip. That's it! It's how I've eaten it my whole life and I love it.
Toni says
Is there a specific size horn mold or are they about the same?
Do you mind sharing your egg salad recipe?
Beth says
Thanks. Most cream horn molds are the same size or are at least similar enough that they will work with the recipe. To make my egg salad, I simple mix the eggs with Miracle Whip. That’s it! It’s how I’ve eaten it my whole life and I love it.
Meow Opre says
Oh my I am just so excited for Easter Sunday and believe me, I already have 30 of Easter menu idea from breakfast to lunch and dinner. These are also fun and yummy looking Easter recipes, but I sure will check on this recipe you share. Please allow me to pin on my Pinterest board? Thanks dear!http://meowchie.snydle.com/easter-recipes.html
Cynthia McCloud Woodman says
So cute! Pinning!
Cindy @ Hun... What's for Dinner? says
Visiting from Roxy's Kitchen and I just LOVE these!! Pinning 🙂
Roxy | Roxy's Kitchen says
These are the cutest carrots I've ever seen, just brilliant Beth! Such a creative and delicious recipe for Easter brunch! Thanks again for sharing this at my Facebook Milestone Link Party :).
SleepyGal says
Do you think it would work if you fashioned cones from toilet paper rolls and wrapped with foil? Thanks for the great recipe.
beth says
I'm not sure that would be a good idea for sanitary reasons and I don't know how the cardboard would do in a hot oven.
Patricia says
What a cute idea. I'm glad you posted other peoples pics, too. It saved me a trip to the store to try and find cream horns. I'm going to use foil.
beth says
I've used the foil around the ice cream cone too and it works pretty well.
Dora Ding says
I had to Pin this! It is so cute!
beth says
Thanks for the pin, Dora!
Heather - Chickabug says
What a great variation on a crescent roll! : )
Kookie says
I'm sorry for the redundancy but I must give credit where credit is due. Oh, these are just delightfully adorable and fun to make! Your expertise and enthusiasm is truly inspiring. But I have to admit that it never occurred to me that your idea was behind the carrot craze. Usually I give a link to the recipe and if it's adapted from somewhere - it has always been attributed accordingly. I've already mentioned that in my post.
But as a matter of fact I saw a sweet version of the carrots (minus the puff pastry) in the book ”Вкусно с Йоли” by a popular Bulgarian blogger. You can see her Blog post here: http://yoli-www.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post_06.html
Now that I've checked, I see that your publication was first in chronological order. Thanks for the remark. I wish you many more inspiring adventures in the food craft area!
Beth Jackson Klosterboer says
Thanks for your response. I really appreciate you adding a link on your blog post and was happy to see how you re-created the carrots.