Cheesy Ham and Broccoli Crescent Braid

The two-year anniversary of the notebook. I want to write the date down: March eighteenth, 2018. Two years ago today I sat at this same kitchen table and made pinto beans and cornbread for two dollars in a kitchen with my brother at the wrong house on North Peoria and my mama at the closing shift at Dollar General. The first dollar-bin notebook is in the drawer in my bedroom, all two hundred pages full from cover to cover. The green hardcover Mama gave me for my fifteenth birthday is on the kitchen table, full now too. The next notebook is going to be the one I picked out at Walmart last week with the savings envelope — another hardcover, same dark green, two hundred pages.

I want to put down what has changed in the year-two. Cody has gone from the night of the police at the door to one hundred and seventy-two days into the rear half of his sentence. The Sonic has gone from a part-time afterschool job to a shift-lead-in-training role with a long-term path to assistant manager. Mrs. Tilford has asked me to cook three church functions and is on a regular schedule for the December tin run. The Tulsa Library teen writing program has accepted me. My brother has a published piece in the Tulsa Review. The recipe box from Grandma Carol is on the kitchen counter. The basil plant on the windowsill has lived for fifteen months. The savings envelope is at $510.

The kitchen has changed. The household has changed. The girl writing has changed. The list at the back of the green notebook now has thirty-eight techniques and a hundred and twenty starred recipes. The math column has more than three hundred receipt entries. Two years from a fourteen-year-old in a dollar-bin notebook to a sixteen-and-a-half-year-old running the closing shift at the Sonic with a savings envelope and an acceptance letter on the fridge is the math I would not have believed in March 2016. The math has decided we are at year two.

And the recipe Sunday was cheesy ham and broccoli crescent braid, because the recipe is a show-off-y bake that looks more impressive than it is and because the two-year anniversary called for it.

The math: two cans of refrigerated crescent roll dough $1.99 each, a half pound of diced ham $1.99, a head of broccoli $0.99 (chopped fine, blanched briefly), a cup of shredded sharp cheddar $0.99, two tablespoons of melted butter, an egg for the egg wash, salt and pepper. Total: about $7.95 for a 9-by-13 pan that fed Mama and me for three meals.

The technique is the braid, which is the part that looks fancy and is actually easy. You unroll the two cans of crescent dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, pressing the seams together to form a single big rectangle of dough. You arrange the diced ham, broccoli, and cheese in a thick line down the center third of the dough, leaving the outer two-thirds empty. You cut the empty outer thirds into one-inch strips perpendicular to the filling, all the way down both sides. You alternate strips from each side, folding them across the filling at angles, like braiding hair. The strips overlap slightly down the length of the braid. You brush the whole braid with beaten egg. You bake at 375 for twenty minutes until golden.

The braid comes out looking like the kind of pastry that bakeries sell for fifteen dollars. The interior is hot and cheesy and savory. The braid pattern shows the ham and broccoli through the gaps in the strips. Mama said, when she saw it on the kitchen counter, baby, what magic did you do. I said, two years of magic, Mama.

I want to write one more thing on the page. I went through the dollar-bin notebook again last night before bed. The first entry from March 28, 2016 is on the first page, in pencil, in handwriting I almost did not recognize as my own. The girl who wrote that first entry was scared. The girl who is writing this entry, on the kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon in March 2018, is not. That is the work of two years. That is what the cooking, in this kitchen, in this household, in this neighborhood, has done. The kitchen is the room that runs the household. The household runs because the kitchen runs. And the kitchen, two years in, runs because the girl at the stove kept showing up. I am keeping that on the page in pen.

The recipe is below. The trick is the alternating-strip braid — cut the strips, then fold across the filling alternating from each side. The braid looks complicated and is actually the easiest part of the recipe. Make this for somebody who has been with you through a year that mattered.

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 22 min | Total Time: 47 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 batch homemade crescent dough (or 2 cans refrigerated crescent roll dough, 8 oz each)
1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, chopped small
1 1/2 cups cooked ham, diced
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds or everything bagel seasoning (optional)

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Steam the broccoli. Microwave chopped broccoli with 1 tablespoon of water, covered, for 90 seconds. Drain well and pat dry with a paper towel — excess moisture will make the braid soggy.
Mix the filling. In a medium bowl, stir together the broccoli, ham, cheddar, mozzarella, mayonnaise, Dijon, garlic powder, and black pepper until evenly combined.
Roll out the dough. On your parchment-lined baking sheet, press or roll the crescent dough into one large rectangle, roughly 12x15 inches. If using canned crescent rolls, pinch the seams together firmly so you have one seamless sheet.
Cut the braid strips. Along both long sides of the dough, use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut diagonal strips about 1 inch wide, leaving a 4-inch center column untouched for the filling. Aim for an equal number of strips on each side.
Add the filling. Spoon the ham and broccoli mixture evenly down the center column of the dough, keeping it away from the top and bottom edges.
Braid the dough. Starting at one end, fold the strips over the filling, alternating left and right in an overlapping pattern to create the braid. Tuck and press the top and bottom ends under to seal.
Egg wash and season. Brush the entire braid evenly with the beaten egg. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or everything bagel seasoning if using.
Bake. Bake for 20–22 minutes, until the braid is deep golden brown and the dough is cooked through. If it browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil after 15 minutes.
Rest and slice. Let the braid rest for 5 minutes before slicing. This helps the filling set so it doesn’t spill when you cut it. Serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cheesy Ham and Broccoli Crescent Braid — The Two-Year Anniversary Bake