My Version of Pigs in a Blanket

My husband and I host a monthly games night that sees anywhere from 15 to 25 plus ourselves.  Then there are the special games nights or all day events like Superbowl, the weekly Sunday gatherings, along with family and friends.  Essentially, we have one or two things going on at our house weekly that involve entertaining.  That means over the course of a one month period, I make a lot of appetizers and finger food!

There are just some appetizers and snacks that are always in high demand.  So it is with pigs in a blanket.  The original recipe uses mini hot dogs and Pillsbury refrigerator crescent rolls.  Each package of crescent rolls will yield 8 pigs in a blanket but if you are making a lot of these as I do, wrapping them individually takes more time.  I seriously went through 5 tubes of the Pillsbury refrigerator crescent rolls making these last Saturday!  I have tried other dough coverings but the refrigerator crescent rolls are the ones that always win out perhaps because that is how their Mom's made pigs in a blanket.

I modified the recipe to use Schneiders 100% Juicy Jumbos (wieners).  These wieners contain no fillers, no by-products and no MSG.  These wieners are longer than the regular sized wieners. I open the tube of refrigerator dough but instead of breaking into the crescent triangles, I just separate it into two rectangles (4 triangles each).  Then I place one jumbo wiener at the short end of a rectangle and roll it up.  I bake as per instructions on the tube, 400°F until golden brown as pictured.

Once baked, I remove from the oven, place on a cutting board and cut on the diagonal using a serrated knife.  I pop a wooden toothpick into each slice for serving.  I usually put out dipping bowls of BBQ sauce and sometimes I put cheese in with the wieners, but the big ticket item is the plain pigs in a blanket.

Cut this way, the yield is usually 12 per tube of refrigerator dough instead of 8 wrapped traditional style.  I think making pigs in a blanket this way is a lot easier and they look just as yummy plus I don't have to buy those smaller wieners.  They may look a bit unconventional but the guys love them!