Easter carrot croissants

Happy Easter, everyone! Again, I was searching for an idea, what to make for Easter. What to serve for Easter Holidays? And since it’s all about eggs, chickens and rabbits, I made these cute Easter carrot croissants. Aren’t they amazing? Easter is going to be so much more special with these adorable carrot croissants.

I also did a quick research about the origins of the Easter bunny and the colorful eggs. Bunnies and eggs? How does that go together? The actual egg should symbolize a new life. OK, that I get. Regarding the bunny, the Easter bunny comes as a legend brought to the US more than 300 years ago by the German immigrants. Different stories were told to the children. Therefore they started building nests for the bunnies in which they could lay colourful eggs. Ha ha ha. A rabbit laying eggs! And that’s why today we make baskets stuffed with many variations of colourful eggs.

Now let’s get back to the Easter carrot croissants recipe before you’ll forget what this post is all about. He he he. I saw these fluffy carrots of internet and I instantly fell in love. Thank you Beth from Hungry Happenings, for the lovely idea. The dough that I used is not of the same brand though. I couldn’t find that here in Germany. However, I found a great crescent dough for croissants at the local grocery. Yeaaah!

In case you won’t find the dough for croissants, simply buy the puff pastry dough. Maybe it could become too fragile. But who am I to say that? It is only my personal opinion.

What are the carrot croissants?

Are you still asking yourself what are those? Well, they aren’t croissants with carrot flavour. They aren’t a carrot cake either. They are croissants in the shape of carrots. These „carrots“ are puffy, soft and filled with an easy creamy egg salad. They are the complete opposite of the real crunchy carrots. PS: Your kids will love THESE carrots!

In order to get the right „carrot“ shape, you will need the metal horn forms. I had only three of those and I needed to bake three times. You only need to bake for about 6 minutes, so that wasn’t such a big problem. Not a problem at all.

When it comes to the colour, I decided to make them more of a natural orange colour instead of making them bright orange. It would make them look too fake or too cartoony. Wouldn’t it? To get a slightly orange nuance, I mixed egg wash with some red and yellow food colour. As a result, I got a nice orange, which turned into a lovely darker orange-brown with a slight golden shine after baking.

As said before, these Easter carrot croissants are filled with an egg salad. Here I let my imagination run free. The secret is to combine the ingredients that you think go great together. It is quick and easy to make your own egg salad. Try it now. Of course, you could also buy an already made egg salad, but that wouldn’t be the same.

Ingredients for about 8-10 Easter carrot croissants:

• 4 eggs (3 hard-boiled and 1 for egg wash)
• half an avocado
• 2-3 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 red onion (chopped)
• 3 pickles (chopped)
• 2 Tbsp apple vinegar
• 100 g cheese (Gouda or Emmental, dices)
• chives (chopped)
• salt and pepper
• a bunch of parsley (garnish and a little for the salad)
• a tube of crescent dough (croissant dough)
• yellow and red gel food colours (a tip of a toothpick)

For the egg salad, boil the eggs. They should be hard boiled. Eight minutes cooking would do just fine. Meanwhile, dice the pickles and cheese, chop the onion and cut the avocado. Try to make all pieces of the same size. Then put everything in a salad bowl, add the vinegar, mayonnaise and season well. Sprinkle with chopped chives and parsley.

Once the eggs are cooked, peel them and dice into more or less same sized pieces as the other ingredients. Add them to the salad bowl and give it a gentle mix. Place aside.

Furthermore, crack an egg in a small bowl, add one teaspoon of water and whisk it with a fork. Divide the egg wash between two small bowls. One stays as it is because you will need it to brush the dough strips. In the other half mix in the red and yellow gel food colouring. I only dipped a tip of a toothpick in it. You won’t need much of the colour to get a lovely „carrot“ tone. You will need it later to brush the dough once it’s wrapped onto the metal horn form.

The making of the carrots

Preheat the oven to 200º C. Unroll the dough and cut it (lengthwise) into 1,5-2 cm wide strips. Brush the first strip with egg wash and then roll it in a log. Pinching it together might help to stick better. By rolling and slightly pushing it towards the outside, make it thinner and about 40 cm long. Repeat the same with the rest of the strips.

Next, wrap each dough log around the metal horn form, starting at the bottom, moving towards the wide end. Try to wrap it tightly and to pinch it together at the end, in order to help the form to hold. Make sure the dough doesn’t go over the top or it might be difficult to remove the horn form after baking.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, brush each carrot croissant with the orange egg wash. Lay them on the baking sheet and put to bake for around 6 minutes or until orange gold. Once baked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool down for a couple of minutes.

Furthermore, gently remove the metal horn form by twisting it very carefully. In conclusion, fill each carrot croissant with the homemade egg salad and garnish with fresh parsley sprigs. You can also use some other greens instead of parsley.

Easter carrot croissants are a lovely idea for your Easter meal. Your family and friends will be really surprised. And they won’t forget this meal that easy. Make an exception this year and present your Easter table with egg salad filled carrot croissants instead of the big chocolate eggs and bunnies.

Enjoy and happy Easter!

PS:

If you like the recipe, if you make the recipe or if you have any new ideas how to improve or change it, let me know in the comments section below or alternatively share your photos and reactions with me on Instagram (@Passionspoon), Facebook or Twitter (@PassionSpoon1). Simply use the hashtag #passionspoonrecipes in your posts. I would love to see them! (wink)