I see no shame whatsoever in using Pillsbury Crescent roll dough for this...delicious!

As @leepert posted, I make mine with mini-sausages (or mini-wieners if you like) and wrap them in Pillsbury Crescent rolls. To make them special, I often slather half of the wraps in home-made pesto sauce and serve the little dogs with a bit of Cajun mustard for dipping the non pesto ones.

I'm willing to bet that when dad-to-be says he loves Pigs in a blanket, he means the traditional - Lit'l Smokies® wrapped in Pillsbury Crescent rolls - and not a homemade (but healthier and probably better tasting) version. They're fast and easy, leaving you to focus your efforts on the rest of the treats!

I agree - crescent dough and lit'l smokies is the way to go. However, I did see a recipe for a variation on pigs in a blanket on Epicurious.

Hi! I made pigs in a blanket twice this week! The first one was for my boyfriend's family gathering and the second one was just today for my company's (late) Cinco de Mayo potluck. For the first batch, I used Pillsbury crescent rolls (regular) and Lit'l Smokies. Preheat oven to 375 degree, cut each triangle dough into 3 smaller triangles, then roll up the hotdogs! Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through the baking process. For the second batch I used the "butter flake" version of Pillsbury crescent rolls and chorizo sausage, then served it with salsa. Big hit both times :) Good luck!

Thanks for the great ideas! We actually hosted the shower this past weekend, and as many have suggested, we just went with the Pillsbury crescent roll version for the sake of nostalgia. And, frankly, they were really good! A terrific friend of mine whipped up 200 of these and we devoured them in the first 45 minutes (a 50-person shower). But they were so good, I am looking into more "homemade" versions to make for my kids periodically -- I'd love a slightly healthier version for them. I might try using my basic biscuit dough.

My dad always makes these but uses the Pillsbury bread dough mix instead. They're delicious and just as yummy. I actually find the crescent roll ones to be too greasy. So give that a whirl!

For anyone else with this question, if you decide to stick with the original style but want to sophisticate them a little, you could use one of the Aidells gourmet sausages. The Chicken and Apple flavour even comes in a minis size which is perfect for appetizers.

My favorite restaurant serves "Big Girl Pigs in a Blanket" they are a smoky sausage inside puff pastry. Delicious, but very rich.

When we make pigs in a blanket, I buy the reduced fat crescent rolls, cut them into smaller pieces, smear them with a grainy mustard, and wrap up a little smokie an a small piece of cheese. They are also great with a little barbecue sauce brushed inside instead of the mustard. I usually do half with mustard and half with the bbq sauce. Yum...

*facepalm* Ah, language. (My first reaction was 'what do you mean, you need a recipe?' - because *here*, pigs-in-blankets are chipolata sausages wrapped in streaky bacon and shoved in the oven, and, well, you can imagine you don't really need a recipe for that...) These seem more like what I'd call mini sausage rolls - which I've always done with (brought) puff pastry.

I am ADDICTED to Saveur's recipe for butterhorn rolls, and just made pigs in a blanket with them last weekend-- they were spectacular! I make and freeze them (before the second rise) in batches and pull them out as I need them.
For pigs in a blanket, I cut each roll in half, which made them the perfect size.
For the "pig," I just used good store-bought sausage, cut into small pieces. I also smeared a little roasted garlic mustard between the roll and the sausage, which was a great addition!
Here's the recipe for the rolls, in case you don't feel like googling it :)
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Butterhorn-Rolls-

Ann, check out this step-by-step guide to pigs in a blanket using home made yeast dough. I found it through the "Food Blog Search" engine. She has really nice photographs and yummy looking "wrapped pigs."

http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2009/06/pig-in-blanket-step-by-step.html

I have had them made with canned biscuits and regular hot dogs.oh and they had American cheese in there to.Yummy.

I'm in a similar bind, but I'm doing a Winnie The Pooh themed shower and feel like "pigs in a blanket" is a little strange in the context of Piglet, so I was trying to find a similar veggie alternative, was thinking about asparagus wrapped in phyllo, but would like other ideas as well.

For the "healthier" issue... looking at the ingredient list, there's nothing especially unhealthy about Pillsbury crescent rolls, unless you're objecting to the level of oil/butter typical of pastry and want to switch to a yeast dough that isn't flaky. PB crescents are just flour, water, oil, sugar, baking soda, salt, and some very, very small amounts of stabilizers and coloring.

That said, I'd swear I've had pigs-in-blankets that were yeast dough (possibly even whole wheat) -- you just pretend you're making rolls and proceed accordingly. They were good. I was not the person who made them.

I use lamb sausages and sheets of puff pastry. Add some chopped rosemary to it and you got yourself a sheep in a rosemary blanket.

Lona, I hadn't heard about the Food Blog Search engine. That's awesome, thanks for the heads up!

@eilonwy: actually that's not true, they do contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil (trans fat) which nowadays, is agreed by most, to be very unhealthy. granted it's less than 2% but by law it can be 1.9% and they don't have to label it as such ... whereas in europe there is a complete ban on trans fat ... it must be pretty nasty stuff so why take in even 1.9% or less?