Make A Breakfast Braid To Last You All Week With One Canned Shortcut

Braiding bread and pastries is a skill that normally takes many tries to master, but even the most unseasoned home chef can make a breakfast braid with one canned shortcut. Canned crescent rolls are the delectable, versatile pastry dough swap that's easy to work with and plentiful enough to make a breakfast braid that'll last you all week.

Canned crescent rolls come as a single rectangular sheet of dough pre-cut into triangles that you'd usually pull apart and roll up into individual rolls. However, in the case of breakfast braids, you'll keep the rectangular sheet intact, pinching the triangular cut line shut for a uniform surface. If the dough doesn't come unfolded as it should right out of the can, you can simply condense it into a ball and roll it out with a rolling pin into a thin rectangular sheet.

Place the dough on a baking sheet and add your filling ingredients down the middle of the rectangle, leaving between an inch to an inch and a half of space from the filling to the outer ends of both vertical sides of the dough. Then, make between 8 and 10 cuts from the edge of the dough to the edge of the filling. The cuts can be horizontal or diagonal, but diagonal cuts are more reminiscent of a braid. Then, simply pull the cut-out strips on either side up over the filling, pinching them together where they meet. Brush the dough with egg wash and slide it into the oven.

Breakfast braids can be sweet and savory, stuffed with a few simple ingredients, or a smorgasbord of veggies, meats, and cheeses. That said, baking times may vary depending on the type and quantity of stuffing ingredients you use. You can cook all braids in a 375-degree Fahrenheit oven, but cooking times range from 15 to 30 minutes. You can check the braid after 15 minutes, and then at 5-minute increments until the crescent roll braid is golden brown and puffy

If you're using vegetables and meat, they need to be precooked. Luckily, thawed frozen vegetables and canned vegetables can save you a lot of preparation time. For a savory breakfast braid, you can draw inspiration from our many breakfast casserole recipes. If you're using eggs, they also need to be cooked as a scramble. You could scramble eggs with cream cheese or ricotta for an extra creamy consistency, or add onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms to the scramble. Top eggs with crispy bacon or crumbly breakfast sausage and shredded cheese. For a twist on eggs florentine, you can scramble eggs with fresh or frozen spinach, topping it with crumbled feta and sun-dried tomatoes. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over the egg-washed crescent pastry.

A sweet variety might include layers of sweetened or flavored cream cheese like this strawberry cream cheese and preserves or fresh fruit tossed in sugar and lemon juice. Brush the top of the pastry with cinnamon and brown sugar-infused butter.