Friendsgiving Cornucopia#

See pumpkin-shaped sweet potato rolls and sourdough dinner rolls for bread recipes in the fully assembled picture.

Cornucopia#

TL;DR make a cone/horn-shaped mold out of foil, make a pizza dough, roll it out, cut in strips, wrap around mold, egg wash

Creates a cone that is 7 inch diameter by 15 inch long.

It’s equivalent to about two 12 inch pizza doughs. 225 square inches of dough.

Ingredients#

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 envelope instant yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 cup warm water
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• egg wash (1 egg + 1 tsp water)

Directions#

Step 1 - Preheat and Create Alumium Mold#

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the mold. Do what you need to do to make the shape. You can use aluminum cans and clumped up balls of foil to make the general shape. Then wrap the shape in straight, smooth sheets of aluminium foil.

Generally, make into a cone shape, curve the end / tail of the horn.

Spray the mold with oil / nonstick spray. Set aside.

Step 2 - Make Pizza Dough#

Combine half of the flour with yeast, suggar, and salt in stand mixer. Slowly add water and oil while mixing on low to combine.

Gradually add the remaining flour until the dough comes together and forms a ball. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed for 4 minutes, adding small amounts of flour as needed until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Step 3 - Roll and Cut Dough#

Split the dough in half or pending recipe amount used to have about 2 cups of dough. This is to have less dough to work with.

Roll out on a large cutting board or the counter to about 1/4 inch thickness. Preferably, the long side of the rectangular dough should be more than 14 inches; the longer the better as it will be fewer dough strands to connect along the mold.

Cut strands lengthwise, should be about 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick. If you want to have a braid, use 3 strands and cut them slightly thinner and take longer strands which are similar in size.

As you cut straight strands, ball up any excess dough and keep aside. This will be used in Step 5 to cut leaves for decoration.

Step 4 - Assemble Strands on Mold#

Drape the strands around the mold. Overlap and pinch ends together, use a dab of water to seal together.

To get the strands around the mold more easily, lightly pick up the mold and continue wrapping.

Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until all the dough is cut and wrapped around the mold.

Step 5 - Cut Decorative Leaves#

Roll out the ball excess dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. With a sharp knife, cut out leaf shapes about 1 to 1/2 inch long. Make light slashes on top of the leaf (its veins and midrib).

Gently, but firmly, stick the leaves on the cornucopia using a dab of water.

Step 6 - Egg Wash#

Whisk together the egg and water and brush over the entire surface of the dough.

Step 7 - Bake#

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the outside of the cornucopia is golden brown. Keep the oven on.

Remove from the oven. Let it cool slightly. Carefully, using tongs, remove the aluminum mold from inside the cornucopia. Try to take out one piece of aluminium at a time.

Put the cornucopia, without the mold inside, back in the oven to finish cooking the inside. Bake for an additional ~20 minutes until the cornucopia is slightly darker and cooked on the inside.

Step 8 - Assemble#

Place on a serving tray or large dish, fill with other breads, rolls, fruits, or vegetables.