Give the Pigs a Break With Pickles in a Blanket
As a food writer, I love the bigness of Thanksgiving dinner. Like a human trash can with the picky eating habits of a goat, I love the culture of grazing at a New Year’s party – especially salty snacks, like pigs in a blanket. This year, as you take the dough out of the pressure tubes, I’m offering a delicious twist on this classic New Year’s snack. Give the piglets a break and prepare some pickles in a blanket.
Pigs in a Blanket work because these little hot dogs are concentrated clumps of salt, fat and umami. Wrap them in strips of buttery pastry for a doubly satisfying take-home snack that pairs well with beer. They’re great, but all that salt and fat can get boring.
Replace the mini sausages with crispy gherkins. In this vegan appetizer, the acidity of miniature kosher dill and its subtle crunch pair well with the soft texture and richness of the puff pastry.
It may seem strange to bake pickles, which are usually served chilled and covered in brine, but making pickles is actually a fantastic method. As you may know from roasting other pickled vegetables , time spent in the oven evaporates excess water and concentrates the flavor of the pickled spices. The pickle’s heat mellows down to a well-rounded bite. Dare I say it’s sophisticated enough to pair with a New Year’s martini.
How to cook pickles in a blanket
There is no complicated technique to confuse you when making these crunchy snacks. Simply prepare this appetizer the same way you would with a little smoke. Unroll the dough and cut it into strips about two inches long and a half-inch wide. You can change the size of the strip to suit the size of your pickles.
Remove the pickles from the jar and dry them with a paper towel. I do the same with cocktail sausages because they’re a pain to deal with if they slide around. Place the gherkin on the strip of dough and roll it up. Place it seam side down on a baking sheet. Repeat with all the dough and small pickles. Bake them for about 12 minutes in a 375°F oven or until lightly browned. Place them in a bowl, adding ketchup or mustard. Oddly enough, although I thought it would be too spicy, the Dijon mustard brings out the best flavors of the pickle.
Use pickles alone or combine them with pork.
You can keep it simple and just use pickles to make this two-bite treat. Use any pickles you like in this recipe – they all go well with the puff pastry. Try the sweet pickled bread and butter or the aggressive gherkin. If you can’t find small pickles, buy whole pickles or cut them into smaller segments.
Pillsbury’s original crescent rolls contain no animal ingredients, but if you’re vegan or have other dietary restrictions, double check the refrigerated rolls you use to make sure the ingredients meet your dietary needs.
I’m not trying to avoid meat, so I tried a couple different combinations with pickles as a separate topping. I wrapped mini gherkins in thinly sliced smoked chorizo and rolled them into crescent roll dough. I also decided it couldn’t be better and put a whole mini gherkin and a whole mini sausage into a double sized strip of pastry. All of the pickle variations were great and honestly better than the original lone battered hot dog. The smooth, salty punch cuts through the salt and fat of the pork, as well as the richness of the batter, creating a perfectly balanced party appetizer.
My suggestion for a New Year’s Eve party is to make a little bit of everything: a bowl of pickles in blankets, a bowl of original pigs in a blanket, and a bowl of pickles and pork. This will make you wonder why you haven’t paired pickles with your pigs all this time.