Elevate Pigs In A Blanket With An Easy Puff Pastry Trick

If you need tasty, bite-sized snacks for feeding a crowd, pigs in a blanket are a great option. Made of just cocktail franks and puff pastry sheets (or croissant or biscuit dough, depending on what you've got on hand), they're savory, buttery, and great for dipping in different sauces.

Most of the time, pigs in a blanket are made by rolling your cocktail sausages up in the pastry and calling it a day. However, you can give them an elevated appearance by playing around with the way you cut your puff pastry.

Rather than using rectangles of the dough, you can cut it into lines and chop your sausages into small rounds. Then, piece the dough and the sausages together to form beautiful flower shapes instead of the standard rolled log. When you bake the pigs in a blanket, you'll still get the same savory flavors but with an upgraded look that enhances your party table — perfect for a springtime spread.

Read more: 11 Things You Didn't Know You Should Be Doing With Bacon

Cutting Your Pastry And Shaping Your Flowers

To get started making this shape, there are a few different ways that you can go about it. One way is to cut your puff pastry into three long strips. Take the strips and shape them into three individual loops, sealing the ends together so that you have three rings. From here, you'll need to cut your cocktail wieners into small rounds as well. Then, place two sausage slices inside each of the rings, and place them in a line. Using a pair of chopsticks, pull the dough through the center of the rings, sticking them together in the middle to form a flower shape. From there, you're ready to transfer them to a baking sheet and bake them.

If this method is too complicated, you can make things simpler by rolling the whole sausages up in the dough. Then, cut them into six pieces and, sticking the dough together at the sides, place them in a flower shape on your baking sheet. Just note that with this method, the dough may not stick together as well, leading to individual pieces of wrapped sausage sliding around.

Other Ways To Cut Your Pigs In A Blanket

Making flowers out of pigs in a blanket isn't the only way to upgrade this easy appetizer recipe with some simple cuts. Another way you can do so is to start by rolling your sausages up in a square of pastry as usual. From there, make slices in the hot dogs about 1 cm apart, leaving the pastry on the bottom of the hot dog intact. Then, pull the slices of hot dog out to the left, then the right, alternating sides to create a sort of braided look.

Another braided look you can make is to make cuts in the edges of a square of puff pastry. Then, place a sausage in the middle and Tcriss-cross the cuts over one another, wrapping the meat as you go. The result is a pig in a blanket with a unique lattice-work look.

Or, if you love the springtime flower shape, take a square of puff pastry and use a fork to press into the edges of the dough. Then, make cuts roughly one inch apart into the sides. Shape each section into a point so it resembles petals and then roll your cocktail franks up in the dough as usual. Finish up by cutting the sausage in half and pulling the petals down and away from the hot dog to form a rose. With all these different cuts, there are plenty of ways to create intricate pigs in a blanket!

Read the original article on Daily Meal.