We were invited to a holiday party last weekend to celebrate with our neighbors, and asked to bring an appetizer.
Somehow my mind immediately went to “pigs in a blanket”, an oldie but still goodie which most everyone adores, even those who refuse to admit it.
When my kids were little “pigs in a blanket” were featured among other homemade treats, such as ants on a log (peanut butter and raisins on top of celery), and tiny individual pizzas , at their many birthday parties.
I made my own by wrapping the tiny kosher cocktail franks in Pillsbury crescent dough, and served mustard on the side. The adults who hung around loved them as much as the kids.
However, for this party I wondered is there such a thing as a “gourmet pig in a blanket?”
Thanks to Food and Wine recipes when I googled it online I found this recipe for the ones pictured in the photo above…they are soooooo good!
New Year’s Eve is right around the corner so you may want to think about making these…they are “bigger, better, and prettier than the version we are all familiar with. Here you go…
(I made a few changes, see my note at the end)
Pigs in a Blanket with Black Pepper Pastry ( Food and Wine, recipe by Jen Pelka of San Francisco’s The Riddler)
(serves 12)
Ingredients
Canola oil, for greasing
1 and ½ tablespoons unsalted butter
1 and ½ tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
¼ cup dijon mustard
One 12- to14-ounce sheet of thawed frozen all-butter puff pastry
Flaky sea salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
4 long (about 8-inch hot dogs, cut into thirds
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
How to Make It
Step 1 Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a large baking sheet.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the sugar and honey over moderate heat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the Dijon until smooth.
Let the glaze cool completely.
Step 2 On a lightly floured work surface, unfold the puff pastry and roll out to a 12-inch square. Cut the dough in half, then cut each half into 6 triangles.
Brush 1 triangle with the glaze and season with coarsely ground black pepper.
Put one piece of hot dog on the wide end of the triangle, then loosely roll up.
Put the pig in a blanket seam side down on the prepared sheet. Repeat with the remaining triangles, glaze and hot dogs.
Brush the pigs in a blanket with the egg wash and sprinkle with flaky sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper. Note: (I substituted Everything Seasoning for the pepper this year at Thanksgiving)
Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Step 3 Bake the pigs in a blanket for 30 to 35 minutes, until puffed and golden; rotate the baking sheet halfway through baking. Serve hot.
Make Ahead The unbaked pigs in a blanket can be refrigerated overnight.
Note: I used a higher quality puff pastry called Dufour which I found at Whole Foods. It is all butter, and larger than the Pepperidge Farm sheets.
I was able to get 4 extra triangles out of it so I baked them on 2 baking sheets.
Instead of hot dogs I found Teton Waters Ranch grass-fed beef Polish sausage at Costcos, which are similar to the size of an all-beef hotdog. They were not 8-inches long, so I trimmed them and got 2 pieces out of each sausage, using a total of 8 sausages, which gave me 16 “pigs in a blanket”.
Delish!