pork – Living Life

I love potlucks, hosting them and going to them, because as a host you don’t have to cook for everyone, and as a guest, it’s an awesome buffet! As a cook I love going because I get to test out new recipes and it’s good feedback because if none of it’s left by the end of the night, you know it’s a winner.

I’m not sure why I wanted to make pigs in a blanket, but then again maybe it’s because I had a great one at my pastor’s Christmas potluck over the holidays. For my approach, I wanted to go beyond the typical wiener in puff pastry, because although delicious, I wanted to step it up a notch. I used a smokie (I originally wanted chorizo but my store didn’t have any 😦 ) and substituted pie dough for puff pastry. I didn’t so much want the puff airiness in the pastry, but a good crunch to contrast with the moist smokie. Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

1 batch of single pie crust
as many smokies, sausages, chorizo, wieners you want
optional: dijon or honey mustard
egg for egg wash

Let’s get started!

Cook the sausages if the ones you bought aren’t already, or just do it for good measure haha. I’ve found the best way is to fill a pot with enough water to just cover the sausages. Bring it up to a boil and then bring it back down to a simmer for about 6 minutes, or until the sausages are warmed through. Then pat them dry and slice if necessary into bite sized pieces.
Roll out your pie dough to about 1/8″-1/4″. No need to be specific, but all I was looking for was a good pastry to sausage ratio. Don’t you hate it when you get one that’s all blanket and barely any pig?
Cut out long triangles, resembling the rolls of crescent dough that come from a can. I cut mine this way for the same reason I roll the dough thinner. You could however, cut them into rectangles so the piggy is completely covered in blanket.
Now comes time for assembly. Have everything ready in front of you, a mis en place, and your pan ready to hold the finished rolled piggies. For your egg wash, lightly beat 1 egg with 1 tsp of water.
Dab some mustard onto the base of the triangle. Place your piggy on top, and then roll it up. Press the pie dough into each other to help it stick. If you’re having a hard time getting the dough to stick together, use some egg wash to glue it in place. Then repeat with the rest of your sausages. At this point in the recipe, you could just put the rolled piggies into the fridge and bake them off just before guests arrive.

Sorry for it being out of focus! But you get the idea right?
When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 400F and brush each piggy in a blanket with egg wash, then pop it in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until your dough browns nicely. Before I baked mine off, I decided to sprinkle half the piggies in a blanket with some paprika to give it a little kick. This is optional, and you could sprinkle on other herbs instead if you’d like.