Great Centerpiece-Edible in Fashion

When you think of Thanksgiving, what few things come to mind?  I think first of the great traditional foods we serve like turkey, sweet potatoes, and delicious pies.  More importantly, traveling and getting together with family and friends, celebrating what we are thankful for which is just wonderful.  I wish everyday could be Thanksgiving!

One of the signature things when I think of Thanksgiving is the cornucopia.  I see this decorative icon everywhere ranging from greeting cards, napkins, and many marketing pertaining to Thanksgiving.  The word bountiful always comes to mind when I see it because these just explode with goodness coming out of them, just makes you smile doesn’t it?

In celebrating this wonderful trademark of Thanksgiving, I decided to give it a shot in creating a homemade one using pizza dough.  Many years ago, probably over 20, I saw something in a magazine about making one with bread dough.  Back then I thought. wow that seems pretty difficult and filed it away in my Thanksgiving recipe file to collect dust and tell myself maybe next year I’ll do it.

As the years passed, I always thought of that project and how neat it would to make one.  So this year, I decided to just do it.  Yeah!

Lets do this!

 

HOW TO

I first started out using a piece of heavy-duty foil as my template.  Tearing off a piece about 30″ long.  I then folded it in half and rolled it diagonally to form the cornucopia shape.  I taped the sides to keep it stable.

The opening I made at least 5″ wide and not very good at “eyeballing” so I got the trusty old ruler out to help out.

Then I tore off pieces of foil and bawled them up to insert into the foil template to help hold the structure when it baked.

I inserted them into the foil template and took the tail and curved it up to give it that authentic look.  Then I sprayed the whole thing with cooking spray.

I took my favorite homemade pizza dough and rolled it out into 1″ pieces and started from the tail, wrapping the dough around the foil template.  I would use egg wash to start a new piece and slightly overlap the previous piece.

Once I got the whole thing wrapped with pizza dough, I used three strips and braided them together.

I placed these around the mouth of the opening securing with the egg wash.

 

I egg washed the whole cornucopia and used some excess dough and cut out leaves to decorate the top.

I placed this on a baking sheet and baked this at 375 about 30 minutes.  Allowing it to cool completely before removing the foil from the inside.

It makes a great centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table.  Filled with fruits and vegetables or even some decorative fall leaves. 

I hope to impress my family with this edible fun decorative touch for our Thanksgiving table this year!

Happy Thanksgiving!!