Christmas Brunch With Egg Salad
I am a big fan of puff pastry. It is one of those culinary materials that can take something that is not so fancy and easy to make and make it fancy. This type of thinking is perfect for a Christmas brunch. Take egg salad for instance. Although egg salad is not that fancy, it is delicious. On white or wheat bread, egg salad is a simple sandwich filler. But, piped into delicate puff pastry horns, egg salad is elevated a few notches not only by the presentation, but also by the buttery and delicate flakiness of the puff pastry. Making the puff pastry horns is easy. Making the egg salad is easy, too. These two things together make a great Christmas brunch idea.
Christmas Brunch: The Horns For Egg Salad
It is the horns that make the presentation here. And for the horns, we turn to that dough we all love to buy instead of make – puff pastry. There is much we can do with puff pastry including making light and delicate horns to stuff. Many stuff a horn like these with sweet creams, but the savory options should not be overlooked.
To Make A Horn
Making the horns is easy. Cut strips of puff pastry about an inch wide then wrap them upon some horn-like mold. You can buy pastry horn holds at a cooking store or you can wrap the dough around foil wrapped ice cream cones. This is an easy and cheap hack to get the job done. Make sure you spray the foil with non-stick spray. Start at the bottom of the cone and wrap the strips of dough up making sure the dough overlaps and is just short of the top of the cone. Brush the dough with a little cream and season with a dash of salt and pepper. The cones bake at 400F for about 20 minutes.
Christmas Brunch – The Egg Salad
Is there anything simpler than egg salad? Hard boil eggs, let cool, peel eggs, mash eggs with fork, add mayonnaise to taste, add an herb like dill, season with salt and pepper and there you have it!
The egg salad is then piped or spooned into the horns. YUM!
- 1 sheet of purchased all butter puff pastry
- Cream
- 8 hard boiled eggs
- ¼ cup of your favorite mayonnaise or more or less to taste
- salt and pepper
- Pre-heat the oven to 400F.
- Open the puff pastry sheet and lay it flat on the work surface.
- Using a pastry cutter, make strips of puff pastry about ½ inch wide along the short side of the sheet.
- Using cream horn moulds or ice cream cones wrapped in foil and sprayed with non-stick spray, wind the strips of puff pastry around the mould. Start winding from the bottom making sure the dough overlaps. Wrap up the whole mould until just shy of the top. If the strips are short, start a new strip where the previous strip ended.
- Brush the horns with cream and season with salt and pepper.
- Bake the horns at 400F for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
- Peel the hard boiled eggs.
- In a large bowl, mash the eggs with a fork. Add the mayonnaise and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer the egg salad to a piping bag with a wide tip or a plastic bag with the corner clipped off. Pipe the egg salad into the cooled pastry horns.
- Serve with a salad or soup.
- You can add celery, onion, or any herbs you like to the egg salad.
Keep Eating! Keep Innovating!
How do you make your egg salad? Ever serve it in pastry horns?
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