Stuffed Braided Loaf

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cans pilsbury ready-made french bread dough (or any homemade dough recipe)
• 3 whole eggs
• 3 egg whites (or if you aren't trying to cut back on calories and/or cholesterol, use 6 whole eggs)
• 1 cup ham, chopped into small peices (or 1 cup hamburger)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (mozzerella works too, but not as well in my opinion)
• salt, to taste (only if you're using hamburger)
• 1 egg

Recipe

• 1 heat oven to 350*f.
• 2 grease a baking sheet.
• 3 remove the dough from the cans and roll them out flat together on the baking sheet, so that you make a rectangle almost the size of the sheet.
• 4 take a knife and cut 9 slits on each side, a little less than 1/4th of the way in, so you end up with 10 rectangular flaps on each side.
• 5 put the chopped ham (or cooked hamburger) in a strip down the middle of the dough, leaving about an inch between the slits and the edge of the strip on both sides.
• 6 scramble the eggs (with salt, to taste, if using hamburger) and put them on top of the meat.
• 7 then put most of the shredded cheddar cheese on top of the eggs, leaving a little extra.
• 8 to braid the loaf take the bottom two flaps of dough, bring them together, twist twice, then lay them down on top of the pile of innards, facing the next two flaps.
• 9 repeat until you have worked your way up the loaf, and when you reach the last two flaps, twist them and then tuck them in to seal it.
• 10 take the egg and, with a brush, spread it over the dough.
• 11 take the remaining cheese and sprinkle it on top of the loaf.
• 12 cooking times may vary, so put it in for 20 minutes and check it in 5 minute intervals until it's done.