Apple Chicken Sausage Brunch Braid - cooking recipe

Ingredients

olive oil
4 links apple-chicken sausage, diced
2 cups diced sweet potatoes
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 cup seedless green grapes, halved
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese, or more to taste
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 tablespoon sliced almonds, or as needed (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Heat olive oil in a skillet and cook and stir apple-chicken sausage, sweet potatoes, celery, red onion, red bell pepper, and garlic in the hot oil until vegetables are cooked through but not soft, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and season with salt and black pepper. Stir grape halves into sausage mixture.
Mix cream cheese, blue cheese, and rosemary in a bowl.
Place sheets of puff pastry onto a large baking sheet. Use a rolling pin to flatten the puff pastry sheets and join them along a long edge into one large sheet. Starting with a long edge, use a sharp knife to cut strips into pastry about 1 1/2 inches apart and 3 inches deep. Repeat cutting strips into the opposite long edge, leaving a fringe of cut pastry strips on each opposite edge and an uncut wide strip of pastry in the middle.
Spread filling evenly down the uncut center of the pastry sheet; drop spoonfuls of blue cheese mixture over the filling.
Braid the pastry by lifting a left and right pastry strip, crossing the two strips over the filling, and twisting one time to join. Repeat braiding the pastry all down the roll, crossing opposite pairs of strips over the filling and twisting one time. Sprinkle the pastry with sliced almonds.
Bake in the preheated oven until the filling is hot and the pastry is golden brown, about 30 minutes.