Pigs In A Blanket

There is nothing better than a cocktail party, and this time of year, I love hosting small and large events.  My husband and I often host pot-luck parties where I make a few hors d'oeuvres, one main dish, and some dessert items.  We recently had an out-of-town friend visiting and hosted a few people at our apartment.  I thought pigs in a blanket would be fun and enjoyable for everyone to snack on while dinner was finishing up.  These simple and easy bites are packed with flavor and appeal to almost everyone. 

What I love about them is that you can use any variety of sausage you like.  For this party, I used chorizo-style chicken sausage. Still, you can definitely experiment with your favorite - kielbasa, merguez, chicken, turkey - all work for this and cater to pretty much anyone attending your party.  To save time, I found a sausage that was already fully cooked.  If you use a raw sausage, cook it through and let it cool before cutting and rolling it in the pastry.

For the dipping sauce, I like truffled honey mustard, but you can also personalize your sauce.  For the merguez, which is a spicy lamb sausage, I might make a yogurt-based sauce, and if I was using turkey sausage, I might do something like a cranberry relish or chutney.  There is really no wrong way to go with it; let your taste and imagination dictate what you do.  But I hope you will try this recipe and that you and your guests enjoy it as much as my friends and I did.  You can use whichever mustard you have on hand or whatever is your favorite for this particular sauce.  I usually prefer Dijon; however, we had spicy brown mustard already on hand, so I used that.

Pigs In A Blanket

Ingredients

For the Dipping Sauce:

1/2 cup mustard
3 tbsp honey
1/4 cup truffle oil

For the Pigs in a Blanket:

4-8 chicken chorizo sausages (or another sausage of your liking)
1-2 sheets puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
Coarse salt & cracked pepper


Directions:


For the sauce:

1. Combine all the ingredients and whisk them together to combine.  

2. Refrigerate until ready to serve.  This can be done up to a week ahead of time. 

*If you have the time, I suggest doing it the day before so the flavors can really meld together.

For the pigs in a blanket:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

1. Remove the puff pastry from the freezer and allow it to thaw for 30-40 minutes on the counter.  

2. Cut the sausages into 4-5 bite-size pieces.  

3. Carefully unfold the pastry and roll it out slightly on a floured board or counter.  

4. Cut each pastry sheet into strips as wide as the sausage rounds and then cut them in half down the middle.  

5. Place one piece of the sausage on one end of a pastry strip and roll the pastry around the sausage.  

6. Brush a little of the beaten egg on the opposite end of the pastry strip to seal.  

7. Repeat with all of the sausage and pastry strips.  

8. Place the pigs in a blanket on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and return them to the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.  

9. Remove them from the fridge and brush the top of each one with more of the beaten egg, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  

10. Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.  

11. Arrange on a platter with a toothpick placed in each one with the dipping sauce on the side.