A Hungry Bear

Working on the blog update has kept me so busy I’ve had to resort to some faster recipes. Pigs-in-blankets are a childhood favorite, although my mom always made them with Bisquick mix. I could have used a standard biscuit recipe, but I found this recipe on Epicurious instead - kind of a like a biscuit, but faster. I have to admit, the dough wasn’t quite as fluffy as I remember mom’s being, but it was surprisingly fast.

Grocery list: 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 3 T toasted wheat germ, 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) shortening (chilled), 1/3 cup buttermilk, 1 egg yolk, 1 package hot dogs (I prefer Applegate Farms all-beef stadium hot dogs - wait, does that make these cows-in-blankets?), some grated cheddar cheese.

Start by mixing the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Cut the shortening into small cubes and then mix into the flour, either with the tines of a fork or a pastry blender. After a few minutes, the pieces of shortening will be uniformly small, like cornmeal.

Whisk the buttermilk and the egg yolk together. Stir it into the flour mixture and mix with a spatula or your hands, until it comes together as one big hunk of dough.

The picture above is a depiction of what your dough should NOT look like. This is what it will look like if you aren’t paying attention to the recipe because Bret Michaels Rock of Love Bus is on in the background. Really, cut the shortening in first and *then* add the buttermilk, it will be much better.

When the dough comes together, plop it down on a floured counter and knead it for a minute or so.

I like to wrap any dough I’m about to roll out in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a few minutes (as you work dough with your hands, the shortening or butter always gets soft and the dough becomes too sticky to handle).

Roll out the dough. The recipe says to roll it into a 12 inch square (to make 10 hot dogs, or 20 pigs in blankets). I found this wasn’t thin enough. Also, I started cutting it into triangles, resembling the little pre-made crescent rolls that a lot of people use for pigs in blankets. But this dough isn’t nearly as pliable as crescent roll dough, so I ended up using little rectangles. You’ll figure out something that works, I’m sure of it.

Cut all the hot dogs in half. Sprinkle a little cheese in the middle of your dough square (triangle, whatever), then put a pig on top of the cheese, then roll it up, making sure the edges come together so the cheese won’t melt out all over the place when you bake them.

Grease a baking sheet with a little oil, nonstick spray or butter. Bake the pigs in blankets at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, or until they are as golden brown as you like.

I serve these with a little yellow mustard on the side - that’s it.