Egg Dyeing Techniques Tested

Remember how on Tuesday I said I was testing a few pins...well, I ended up testing 4! I'll show you 3 of those today. All of them are about methods of dyeing eggs. I thought I had a ton of eggs in the fridge, but I only had 6. But it's just Cameron and I here and we really don't need a butt load of cooked eggs sitting in the fridge. More than that and they'd just be "eggstra". C'mon. You knew I had to throw that in somewhere, right? Right. 

So the first method I tried was the Volcano Eggs. 

The Original Pin

http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2012/04/volcano-egg-dyeing.html

Carolyn was perusing Pinterest one day while her son was napping and found the Volcano Eggs. She says, "I rushed to my cupboard and fridge, and pulled the supplies out.  I decided I would use blue and green for my baking soda paint, then use the red and yellow die to just drop directly onto the egg.  My paint brushes were in the back bedroom, which was locked… and the door sticks really bad.  So I decided to use spoons to “paint” the egg with.  Then I dripped some yellow die on.  Rather boring I thought.  But I was too lazy to do much more. I grabbed the vinegar and poured some on.  Whoa!!  Crazy colorful volcanoes!!!  It was awesome!  Sadly the color was annoyingly pale." 

The Pinstrosity

This sounded like fun to me, so I thought I'd try it out and see what I could get. 

The Investigation:

I followed the instructions from the original pin and got my baking soda paint mixed together. It looked bright and vibrant. 

I was just going to use clear vinegar, but I thought I'd take it a step further and see what vinegar with food coloring in it did too. 

There's the fizzing. Just like Carolyn found, the colors did go quite pale and boring. 

So I thought I'd leave the baking soda paint on for longer to see if that helped. Nope. Didn't do anything. The colored Vinegar was fun and made different colors run differently. In the end the egg was neat, but not near as vibrant and fun as the original. I'm thinking she must have used neon food coloring or put more than the 6 drops I put in the baking soda (which I thought was a lot).  

So, not a fail...but not as cool as I had hoped. And mine didn't really fizz all that good. I'd rather just dip eggs, it's less of a hassle. 

Alright, on to method #2. 

The Original Pin

http://elhadadepapel.blogspot.com/2012/04/huevos-eggs-eier.html

The directions say, "Leave the eggs some minutes in the color and then add some more water. Do the same till the eggs are completely covered by the water."

Jamie, aka The Pinning Pirate, found these and decided to give it a try. Here's her story: "First of all, from the picture, I couldn't tell if the eggs were peeled or not. I left the shell on my eggs. I used the closest version of glasses I had of the original picture. As you can see here..."

"I started out by making the purple, orange, mint green and rose red colors from the directions on the  food coloring box. 26 red 14 blue, etc. and did the last two glasses red and green. After getting the color in the glass, I added 1 tablespoon of water and let it sit for about 10 minutes. After each 10 minute interval, I added a tablespoon of water until the whole egg was submerged. This took about 4 'layers' of water so I was hoping for 4 beautiful layers."

The Pinstrosity

"The first problem I encountered was the egg not wanting to stay upright. As you can see in the front left glass, the egg just gave up and fell over. Quick death. The more water I added, the less the eggs stood up. The second problem was in the middle of my experiment, I looked at the box of food coloring and noticed that I was using the increments for white cake mix. The next column on the box was for white frosting and lo and behold, the last column had increments for "egg dye" and the amount needed was waaaaaaay different from cake mix. Obviously."

"Wonderful. Just another reason I messed this up. I had that failure instinct before I was even done with this. Shall we see what the final outcome was?"

"Pretty right?! The one on the left even looks like JUPITER!! And the cracks? Beautiful. Not at all what they were supposed to look like."

So I decided to give this a try and see what I could come up with. 

The Investigation:

So the first thing I thought I would try to trouble shoot is how to keep the egg upright. I used two toothpicks to prop up one corner of my glasses, hoping that would lean the egg in the corner enough. Also, eggs float some (the more fresh they are, the less they will float...but still they don't just stay put). If your eggs are cooked fully they won't want to wander as much...but they will still wander some. 

That worked at first. I was able to add water once even and they stayed upright. But the 2nd time I added water the orange egg fell over.   

 So when I went to pour in water in the purple egg I held the egg still and upright with a measuring spoon. That worked wonders! No tippage. 

In then end, this worked out pretty good. Not fabulous, but not bad either. I forgot to take a picture of just the two "ombre" eggs...so here's the whole set of 6 eggs and their various colorings...with the 2 ombre ones mixed in there. 

This method actually wasn't too bad. The hardest part is keeping your egg upright, but that can be done. 

And finally I tried this one out:

The Original Pin

http://www.kimberlycun.com/2011/04/22/how-to-make-surprise-marbled-easter-eggs/

Belle tried this out and here's what she got:

The Pinstrosity

This looked like fun! I was on this one quicker than a raccoon can steal eggs.  

The Investigation:

I had my cooked eggs and went to gently crack the shells...but my method of cooking (which I'll discuss on Saturday) made the shells more brittle than I was expecting and I couldn't get fine little cracks. Not to mention the bottoms (where the air bubble is) fell completely out. Oh well. I poured my food coloring over the egg in the bag and put the two eggs in the fridge for about 40 minutes (while I colored the other eggs). I pulled them out and they were vibrant! I was so excited. And then I rinsed them with water as instructed and the dye mostly rinsed off. 

 But I still had high hopes for the insides. I did the vinegar rinse and then let them dry. Once they were dry I peeled them and here they are:

Not bad. The lines are thicker than I hoped, but at least they are there. I'm wondering if because the egg shells were more brittle than normal if it let in too much dye, causing the thick lines. Here's what they looked like cut open: 

All in all, not bad. I had fun at least. I learned some fun techniques for the future. Next year I think I'll try the tie-dyed silk print eggs. 

Check back on Saturday to see the pin I tested for cooking these eggs! 

Easter Round Up

I'm sticking with the Easter theme just a little longer here. We get a few holiday themed submissions in the days leading up to a holiday, but then we get quite a few in the week following the holiday. Easter was no different...and it's only 2 days later. This week I will do 3 more Easter posts and then I'll move on. 

It's been quite a while since I've taken a submission and done thorough testing on it to see what I can personally find out. The original idea of this site was that we'd test everything we could, and that went well at first. Then it didn't go so well. I could sit here and make excuses...but that's lame. So, it is my goal to start testing out one submission a week. We'll see how this goes. Today I'm testing out 3 different submissions (because they all fit together really well). I'll give you the results on Thursday and Saturday. I thought about telling you what I'm doing, but what's the fun in that? You'll just have to come back and see what I tried and if anything I tried worked or not. 

So that leaves today. I thought I'd do a round up post (which I haven't done in a while either) of some of the remaining Easter submissions we've been sent. There are some great ones!

The Original Pin

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2012/03/silk-dyed-eggs-aka-tie-dyed/

Jessica said, "I followed the instructions exactly and made sure all ties were 100% silk. I made two different attempts after I saw the first batch had streaks. My second attempt, I cut the fabric into a circle, then cut strips to the center so it would be easier to wrap each piece around the egg. I still had streaks. The eggs themselves were still interesting and kind of "artsy" now but they in no way did as well as the photos claimed."

The Pinstrosity?

I know we are all our worst critics, and I think that's the case here. These aren't bad at all! I know maybe they aren't quite what Jessica expected, but they actually are pretty close to what the website shows. And if you look at all the eggs in the post on ourbestbites.com, she has some that came out streaked and "blotchy":

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2012/03/silk-dyed-eggs-aka-tie-dyed/

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2012/03/silk-dyed-eggs-aka-tie-dyed/

I love this idea and how cool the eggs turn out. There will be streaks and spots that don't quite transfer, as the website shows here:

but they still turn out so neat and different from "normal" dyed eggs. Give this one a try! I think I'm going to have to stock up on silk ties from the thrift store and do this periodically through the year just because of how pretty they are. Maybe I'd eat more eggs if they were so pretty!

Alright, on to the next submission!

The Original Pin

http://www.made-famous-by.com/2012/01/made-famous-by-mcmullin-aka-made-famous_26.html

Amanda says, "I found this recipe on Pinterest that I thought would be great for making Easter cookies. All I needed to do was add food coloring to add a the perfect touch of Easter flair. "

The Pinstrosity

http://dreamsiclesisters.com/posts/easter-cookie-fail-pinterest-exposed

"The 1 lb of butter and small amount of baking powder should have been my first two clues this recipe was a FRAUD! I spent 2 hours mixing it all together and baking them. Had they turned out right, there was enough batter for at least 3 dozen cookies. They tasted okay, but looked terrible. I think the recipe called for too much flour and not enough baking powder. Moral of the story, don’t believe everything you see on Pinterest!"

The Original Pin

http://itsafabulouslife.com/resurrection-rolls-a-fun-and-yummy-easter-tradition/

Nicole said, " I got so excited when I found this pin, I could not wait to do them with my 6 year old. Unfortunately,this is what I saw when I opened my oven!" 

The Pinstrosity

"I followed the directions, I even took extra care to pinch my seams nice and tight, so I was bummed that the marshmallow insides exploded out of most of my rolls :("

This is one that we've seen a lot of. It's also one that I've tried myself and didn't have much success with (and I didn't think they tasted that amazing either...but that was just my personal opinion). In an earlier post, we gave y'all a tip from a submitter who finally got these to work. Here's what they said: "This time, instead of pinching them shut like the recipe calls for you to do, I wrapped them in such a way that the marshmallow could still breathe. Fifteen minutes later I pulled out perfectly fluffy, delicious treats (and they taste just as heavenly as the easter story they represent). The point being DO NOT SEAL THESE SHUT! It will piss off your marshmallow and make for a horrendous clean up time!" And here are their breathable rolls:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/10/marshmallow-rollsthe-great-escape.html

The Original Pin

http://thedecoratedcookie.com/2012/02/a-sweet-peek-at-sugarlicious-little-lamb-cake-balls/

And this is how Lauren's turned out:

The Pinstrosity

You would think you could just stab 4 pretzels in the cake ball and it would stand up fine. Life is not that simple. I've tried things like this and you actually have to move the legs around to find just the right "balance".  Other than that, these look pretty cute if you ask me. 

And then we had another submission for the bunny buns. 

The Original Pin

(our post about these: http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2013/03/bloated-bunny-buns.html)

The Pinstrosity

asdf

The Original Pin

http://science-at-home.org/bouncy-eggs/
The Pinsterest caption for this said, "Bouncy Eggs - leave egg in vinegar for 2 days, the shell will dissolve and eggs will be all rubbery"

Katie saw this and gave it a go. Here's her story: "My sister-in-law and I attempted to dissolve an egg in vinegar. All she had was apple cider vinegar but we didn't think it would make a big difference. We waited the 24 hours and washed off the shell, placed it back into clean vinegar. Last night it was done, and had doubled in size, and turned the light brown from the vinegar."

"Now they said this egg could bounce so we gave it to my 6 year old niece." Are you cringing? I am. 

The Pinstrosity

"She held it up and threw it as hard as she could, there was no bounce just a splat of yolk all over the floor. Soon the smell of rotten egg and vinegar filled the house. The second picture is my my sister-in-law cleaning the mess that got on her foot. It was hilarious and the first words out of my mouth was 'We are totally putting this on Pinstrosity!'"

I remember doing this in elementary school...or during my home school years...or both maybe. Either way, it really is a neat experiment. The shell does dissolve, leaving a funky and fun little orb. I wouldn't recommend eating it after, unless you like vinegary eggs (as the raw egg will absorb some of the vinegar). As far as the bouncy goes...it does bounce, just not like a bouncy ball. If you drop it on the counter from an inch up, it will bounce...but as Katie found out, it doesn't turn into a bouncy ball sadly (how cool would that be?!). 

So there you have the Easter round up. Well, most of it. Come back later in the week to see the results of the testing of the final Easter pins!

Bloated Bunny Buns

I want you all to know that you're the only reason I'm not still holed up in bed being lazy and avoiding responsibility. It's a good thing y'all are here. No but really, I'm glad you are. I hope your Good Friday was great. Mine was a Not-So-Good Friday, but hey...I survived. Now I'm ready to take today by the horns and get something good done. 

So let's get on to today's Pinstrosity. Pinterest is great for spreading around fabulous ideas, recipes, and more. But Pinterest is also a big springboard for misleading pins...which often seem to go viral. Like the miscaptioned "Fill a Balloon without Helium!" pin that everyone pinned (but didn't go to the original site to read the directions and see that the gas you create does not make the balloon float as it is just CO2). Or the whole glowing Mt. Dew hoax that went around. This seasons misleading pin? This one:

The Pin

This photo has gone viral...the first I can find that it showed up online was here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=214633055348079 with the photo on the left being from here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juznie/3883718737/. More on this in a minute. 

So many people have pinned this as "Adorable bunny rolls!" or "Must make these cute rabbit rolls for Easter!" or something along those lines. Looking further into things...these aren't actually rolls. As far as I can find the bunnies on the left are a seasonal treat made in cookie molds for the moon festival by Minamoto Kitchoan, a Japanese Wagashi company (there isn't a photo of the bunnies on their site, but people keep linking to them saying this is where they originated). They are a cookie with a grapefruit filling (sounds heavenly to me). 

The photo on the left seems to have come from a facebook account with a link to make similar cookies. So the two photos in the pin didn't come from the same source...they're a mash up. 

But the idea is really cute, for rolls or cookies. Make your dough ball. Cut ears with kitchen shears. Poke eyes in the dough. Bake. What can go wrong there? 

The Pinstrosity

Well...that. That's what can go wrong. Poor Andrea tried making cute little "bunny buns" and ended up with guinea pig rolls instead. She followed the technique right for cutting the ears and making the eye holes, so what went wrong? 

The dough. bread/roll/bun dough rises and expands. She didn't say if she put the buns in the oven right after she cut the ears or if she let them rise again (it could go either way by that photo I'm thinking), but either way the dough continued to rise and expand after the ears were cut and the eyes were shaped. We don't know what kind of dough she used, but we do know she said it was for buns. 

If you want to make bunny rolls or buns, you want to form your dough balls and let the rise to the desired size, then cut the ears and immediately put them in the oven. Don't let the rolls rise again between cutting the ears and baking. You also want to make sure you cut good sized ears so that as the rolls puff while baking the ears aren't completely swallowed into the rising dough. If you have a roll/bun recipe that doesn't puff much while baking, that would be an excellent choice for trying to make bunny buns/rolls. 

We also found a link to a video showing how to shape the bunny cookie/rolls:

I was able to find this recipe off of the facebook posting, but I'm not sure if it's for rolls or a cookie (don't think cookie like a sugar cookie, more like an "old fashioned" cookie):

2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons butter

1 egg

Put the butter, the sour cream and water in a small saucepan and heat, but do not cook. Cool to tepid then add the remaining ingredients. Put in a kneader. If thick add more water.

Let it rise double and cut into 16 equal parts.

Baking tray lined with baking paper and cut the ears with scissors.

Then, the eyes can be put, such as pepper grains.

Bake at 375° for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

She also gives this post as reference for how to help form the right shapes: http://ancikonyha.blogspot.hu/2013/02/citromos-teasuti-lemon-cookies-for-tea.html

So there you have our investigation into the bunny rolls that popped up all over. I know some have had success with these, but some have had trouble. What recipes did you find successful for making these?

I hope all of your final preparations for Easter are going well! Have a most wonderful Easter Sunday tomorrow.

Chunky Chocolate "Carrots"

Easter just happens to be on my Mother's (and my brother's) birthday this year, so I've been trying to decide what fun treat to bring over that is both fun for Easter and Birthdays. I also have to keep it Gluten free so I've been trying to find the perfect thing without having to go too fancy. Luckily we had a great submission come in and I think I've got a great idea now. Here it is:

The Original Pin

http://sugarbeanbakers.blogspot.com/2012/04/carrot-strawberries.html

Carrot Strawberries! Aren't those fun? I think they're pretty cute. Our submitter, Cathy, says, "I came across a buy one package of strawberries, get one free at the store and thought I could make those chocolate covered strawberries that look like carrots from Pinterest - perfect timing for Easter.  Well it turns out, I can't." 

The Pinstrosity

 "I must say that I did not follow any instructions as I have melted chocolate in the past for chocolate dipped pretzels.  Anyway, I tried melting my first bag of white chocolate in my brand new double boiler.  It got way too hot way too fast and I ended up over-cooking the chocolate.  At this point I was determined to get it right...off to the store for some more white chocolate.  So I decided with the second bag of chocolate I would keep the temp down quite a bit.  The chocolate started to clump and I thought "what do I have to lose now?"  So I dipped the strawberry but the chocolate just wasn't smooth enough so this [above] is how it turned out. On the GCT Fail Scale, I give it a 3...because it looks bad but didn't actually taste that bad (according to my husband)!  Lesson learned: buy more Han one bag of chocolate so I don't have to make several trips to the store!  Oh, and read the instructions!"

I have a few theories on this. Here we go. 

1. The heat. Chocolate is finicky. It has to be melted just right or it is no longer smooth and creamy. If you don't have one of those awesome chocolate tempering machines (and alas, most of us do not), then you have to watch the chocolate to make sure you're not frying it. If you are using a double boiler, you want the heat on low. I know it seems like it would take forever, and it may, but you won't scorch your chocolate that way. You don't want the water in the lower portion to boil...that's way too hot. Many packages now give microwave instructions. I've had relative success with that. Just follow the instructions. I've sometimes even just used a pan on the stove and had the burner on as low as it would go. Stir your chocolate as it melts. 
2. If chocolate gets water in it, it will seize (clump and get grainy). Always make sure all the utensils and bowls you are using are completely dry, and avoid wooden spoons. If you do end up with seized up chocolate, don't throw it away. http://candy.about.com/od/workingwithchocolate/a/chocmistakes.htm says that even though it's not good for dipping anymore, save it for baking! 
3. Cathy mentioned going and buying white chocolate, but she didn't say how she went about coloring her chocolate. With chocolate you have to use chocolate or candy coloring. DO NOT use just the normal generic food coloring. It will seize up your chocolate. Many places now carry the colored chocolate chips, so if you don't want to deal with coloring your chocolate on your own, see if you can find the pre-colored chips. They make things way easier for those of us who want fewer steps. 

So there are my thoughts and tips for this. Dipping chocolate can be tough, but it's so fun and exciting when it works out! Give it a try!

Carrot Cake Crumble Pop

So I didn't really realize until this past Sunday that Easter is this Sunday! I can't believe how fast it has sneaked up on me. Sneaked...that just sounds so weird. Snuck sounds better, but that's not grammatically correct. : | Anyway. I guess I'm just used to Easter being in April. Oh well. I thought it was high time we get something Easter related up on the blog. don't you agree? I've got a Pinstrosity that we've been saving since July (I can't believe I almost missed the chance to post it). Behold...the Carrot Cake Pops: 

The Original Pin

http://paperplateandplane.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/carrot-cake-pops/

Not only are they shaped like carrots, but they are made with carrot cake. MMMMmmmm. I love carrot cake. Kacie said that "everything was off to a good start, but when I shaped the carrot cake, it seemed really squishy - it fell apart when I tried to put it on the stick, so I stuck them in the fridge for a while to see if that would help. Later, following the directions of then dipping the cake on the stick into the coating, they totally fell apart. I made a huge mess and the ones that did "turn out" didn't really look too appetizing."

The Pinstrosity

We've actually seen a number of Cake Pop submissions. These things aren't as easy to make as they'd seem. 

It sounds like the main problem here was maybe the cake to frosting ratio. That can be tricky, especially as different cakes have different textures (oohhh....I wonder if you could get an angel food cake to work for these...that sounds good). A comment we received on an earlier post gives a great explanation for how she makes her cake pops work:

• GirlNamedCorrie says, "There is definitely a fine line between too much frosting for cake pops. When I make mine, I use a box of cake mix to a half of a can of premade icing (Betty Crocker or Dunkin Hines...whichever is cheaper that week). It doesn't seem like enough icing at first, but keep mixing and suddenly you have playdough made of cake! Too much and they will slide no matter what kind of sticks you use."
  
  "Also, putting chocolate on the sticks before you stick them into the cake ball is a must! I use the chocolate bakers chocolate from the craft store (no need to color the chocolate myself!) and have never had issues with it. If you leave the pops in the freezer for too long, then as they heat up with the chocolate on them, you'll have a huge mess. The condensation will go right through the chocolate and make a very sad, sweaty-looking cake pops". 

One great thing about these though...they can look like poop and still taste awesome. So they may not make your party more beautiful, but they'll still make your taste buds happy.

I'm excited to go through and see what other Easter submissions we have hidden away in the archives...I know we have some more awesome Easter Pinstrosities to share with you all! Check back each day to see what we find. 

Marshmallow Rolls...the Great Escape

You've seen them on the blog as Redundo Rolls. You've seen them on Pinterest as Hocus Pocus Rolls or Resurrection Rolls. You've seen them exploding in your ovens.  Today...we give you:

The Original Pin

http://eatatallies.com/2011/04/resurrection-rolls/

The Disappearing Marshmallow Rolls! We featured this on the blog before, but we've had quite a few entries since then. I've been saving this one though. Why? Because I tried it, followed our advice, and couldn't get it to work. I ended with results just like these:

The Pinstrosities

 "Mine turned out more like marshmallow snails. In the recipe/directions, she doesn't actually give measurements for ratio of cinnamon to sugar or how much melted butter you need, so I don't think that was the issue. Others had commented that the marshmallow melts and leaks out if you don't make sure your crescent roll "seams" are sealed well, so I made sure to try to do that. Thing is, ours didn't just leak out, they sort of exploded. After they cooled, the marshmallow size went down and they were delicious anyway, but they definitely didn't look like they were supposed to." -Jacy

 "I was super excited to see these marshmallow-y delights on Pinterest and decided to try them out for an easy dessert.  I have a bunch of campfire marshmallows left over from a camping season riddled with fire-bans (Colorado spent almost the whole camping season on fire ban).  I figured I could use up marshmallows and free up pantry space.  I broke out my giant marshmallows, the cinnamon and sugar, my melted butter and of course the crescent rolls, perused the directions a 3rd time since that seems to be a primary fail culprit. I took a whole marshmallow dipped it in the melted butter rolled it in the cinnamon/sugar mix then attempted to wrap it in a crescent. Not such a stellar job, but it worked, I had to stretch the dough a bit to accommodate the over-large marshmallow but it worked.  I decided after that maybe a ½ campfire-mallow would work and the next 2 were done in halves, it was still a bit of a squeeze and then I ¼’d the marshmallow.  The wrapping was much easier now but I was out of crescents so it was time to get dessert baking.  I was entertaining my sister-in-law and we were chatting at the table when she looked at the oven and said “uuhhh – is it supposed to explode?” Sure enough I had the stay-puffed marshmallow monster growing steadily in my oven reigned in only by feeble crescent bonds.  The dough looked like it was just about perfect so I pulled them out and this is what I had (this picture was taken after we had eaten some of the flattened sweeties) Thank heavens I put foil on the pan and sprayed it with Pam this was such a gooey mess! They were delicious please don’t think I’m complaining but the marshmallows most definitely didn’t disappear and the crescents didn’t hold any type of shape.  Obviously the next time I do this I’ll be using regular sized marshmallows but even the quartered ones (which ought to have been just about the same size) didn’t hold up.  Please help!  I want these to be the tastey pop-able puffs of Halloween that I imagined them to be!" -Alison

"I followed the recipe exactly so I'm not sure where I went wrong :( Regardless of if I knew or not, I will not be trying this one again because I have yet to clean out my oven and I just don't want to add to it. I give this one a 3 out of 5." -Jamie

http://pinthisnotthat.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/hocus-pocus-rolls/ -Kierra

"I tried to make these Crescent-Roll-Cinnamon-Sugar-Marshmallow things. Marshmallow everywhere. But they still tasted good!" -Sarah

"As soon as I pulled these out of the oven I knew I had to send it in. I don't know if I just did something wrong or if this doesn't really work. It said the marshmallows would disappear, but they just spewed out of the sides. I followed the recipe exactly and I even spent extra time on pinching the dough closed so that there were no openings. So here's my pinstrosity. " -Sariah

When I made mine I took extra time to make sure that I had pinched the dough closed very thoroughly...and I still ended up with flattened and spewed rolls. I didn't take a picture because they look like all the other photos above. I wasn't quite sure how to solve this. That is, until Carter emailed us. Carter tried out the recipe the first time and got this:

But Carter's no quitter. Here's the story:

 "I thought I would send in my lovely experience (and high quality images) to share! And my advice on how other pinners can avoid the hell I found with these heavenly rolls."

"I had just gotten home from a horrible accounting test and all I wanted to do was eat my feelings. I had pinned these bad boys about a week earlier, so they were still fresh on my sweet desiring radar. My boyfriend was also on his way to visit me (I live in Athens and he lives in Atlanta) so I thought I would have something delicious ready for his arrival. After a quick pit stop at the grocery store, I pulled up the original site and followed the recipe from start to finish.
One of the pictures I have included is how the rolls are supposed to look, all cute and fluffy and filled with deliciousness. When my oven timer finally went off after fifteen minutes, that was not at all what I found. The picture included is how mine appeared the exact moment I pulled them out of the oven. My roommates and I had a good laugh at first, then came time to scrape them off the pan.....thirty minutes later, we had a broken pile of cooked crescent dough on a plate. This was a pin fail for the books."

"About a week later, and the night before my business statistics test, I thought I would put the other tube of crescent rolls in my fridge to use and make these bad boys again. This time, instead of pinching them shut like the recipe calls for you to do, I wrapped them in such a way that the marshmallow could still breathe. Fifteen minutes later I pulled out perfectly fluffy, delicious treats (and they taste just as heavenly as the easter story they represent). The point being DO NOT SEAL THESE SHUT! It will piss off your marshmallow and make for a horrendous clean up time!"

I want to try these again, and now I know what to do. Thanks so much for your help and sleuthfulness (I'm sure that's a word) Carter, you're the best!