Photo: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Football season is well underway, and it just so happens to coincide with Halloween, so some adorably morbid, shareable snacks are in order. Save your ordinary pigs in blankets for later and make some Halloween mummy piglets instead—complete with slime.
I love little smokies tucked in crescent dough as much as the next girl, but higher-quality versions of those two ingredients are available: Specifically, brats or smoked sausages that you usually reserve for a hoagie roll (but full-length hot dogs will do), wrapped in strips of all-butter puff pastry. (And serving mummy piglets during October gives you just enough time away from the classic to make you miss them again in time for the playoffs.)
The beauty of using full sausages—besides the fact that they taste incredible—is that you can wrap the pastry around the entire link first, then slice the sausage into inch-long bites. It’ll streamline your mummy-making process and cut down on the lengthy prep time of individually wrapping 40 miniature hot dogs. There are two main ingredients for this fearsome recipe: frozen puff pastry and sausage links. (For an optional decoration, I’ll tell you how to use a little yellow mustard and pickle relish later.)
How to make mummy pigs in a blanket for Halloween
Thaw the puff pastry in the fridge overnight, or otherwise according to the package directions, and unroll a sheet. Puff pastry gets mushy and easy to squish if it warms up too much, and you risk losing the leavening quality, so it should be flexible but cool to the touch when you use it.
Using a knife or a pizza cutter, and cut a few thin, long strips of pastry—about ¼-inch thick strips. If your sausages have a lot of moisture on them, now is a good time to blot them dry with a paper towel so the dough sticks better. Lay out one length of pastry and place a sausage on one end. Press the end of the puff pastry against the sausage so that it sticks. Roll the sausage along the pastry at a slight angle, so it wraps around diagonally. If you get to the end of the sausage and you have more pastry attached, just run it back and it will naturally be at an opposing angle.
Photo: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
To get a proper mummy look and ensure you get enough tasty puff pastry in every bite, try to criss-cross enough strips along the weenie so they overlap about three times, but you should still be able to peep the sausage through the “mummy wrappings.” If the dough feels a little loose, it’s alright, large gaps will shrink up in the oven. Just be gentle with it and resist the urge to stretch it tight, which would take away some of its puffing power.
Photo: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Once the sausage has been mummified, cut it into three or four bite-sized lengths. Place them on a parchment-lined sheet tray and bake in a preheated 400°F oven for 12-15 minutes. The mummy piggies will be puffed and golden, ready to eat. They get the point across even when left undecorated, but if you want to go the extra Halloween mile, fill a piping bag with mustard, or do the ziploc bag trick. Pipe out small yellow mustard eyeballs in between the pastry wrappings. To make wee pupils, use nigella seeds, black sesame seeds, or any contrasting, small, edible object. Serve with a side of pickle relish “slime.”
