Not everyone wants flowers for Valentine’s Day. And for the carb and bread lovers in your life, this could just maybe be the perfect bouquet! It’s simple and inexpensive to make and for the next few nights, pasta and soup can be on the dinner menu as you have the perfect dippers in all shapes and sizes!
12 to 15 wooden skewers
1 refrigerated can (oven-ready) croissants, biscuits, or cinnamon rolls
1 large beautiful loaf of bread (round or rectangular shaped - anything that would make a nice base/vase)
An array of bakery fresh breads in different shapes and sizes, here’s what I used:
5 miniature savory muffins
1 baguette - cut into large chunks
2 rosemary rolls
2 whole wheat rolls
2 croissants
1 large pretzel
*I got my breads at multiple different places. A good place to shop for these: local bakeries, Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Panera Bread.
*This bouquet could also be made sweet with an array of treats like muffins, cinnamon rolls, sweet croissants, donuts, donut holes, etc.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove the refrigerated dough from the can and cut strips of dough out (you will have leftover dough - it should only take 2 to 3 rolls). Using your hands, roll out long, skinny pieces. Wrap the strips of dough around the middle of each skewer leaving plenty of room at the top and bottom - the bottom will stick into the bread bouquet and the bread pieces will be skewered on the top. Place in the oven for about 10 minutes or until dough is cooked through and golden.
While the skewers are in the oven, make your vase. Find the bottom of the bread loaf, and cut a small, even bottom to flatten the loaf out so it stands upright. Cut the top off in a similar way and dig out about 1/2 inch of bread so it looks like the opening of a vase.
When the skewers are cooled, stick them in multiple different places all over the bread loaf, making sure they’re deep into the “vase” and secure. The deeper they’re skewered, the longer they’ll stay upright. Skewer the array of breads on the tops of each skewer. If the vase starts to lean to one side, skewer a heavier piece of bread on the opposite side. The softer the bread is, over time some of the skewers may start to fall. To prevent this, lean the bouquet on a wall to keep them in place.