Pigs in a blanket come in many variations. Just about every culture across the world has its own way to make this sausage-based food.

For example, if you’re from the United Kingdom, small sausages are wrapped in bacon and baked on a lightly greased oven tray. In Mexico, the sausage is wrapped in a tortilla and deep-fried in vegetable oil. In Israel, it’s a children’s dish that consists of a hot dog rolled in a ketchup-covered sheet of puff pastry or phyllo dough and baked.

And in the United States and Canada, bite-size pigs are a common hor d’oeuvre served at parties. The meat is usually Vienna sausages, hot dogs, breakfast links or cocktail wieners wrapped in biscuit dough, pancakes or croissant dough and baked in the oven. I guess the latter is the most familiar to me.

The other day, I was introduced to saucijzebroodjes, or Dutch pigs in the blanket. Therese and I were invited by Lillian Elsinga of Grand Forks, N.D., to make some. We were using a recipe that was provided by Lillian’s sister, Grace Veldheer, of Holland, Mich.

Lillian graciously opened her kitchen for the project. Therese made the pastry beforehand, while Lillian purchased the meat — pork breakfast sausage and ground beef — which she mixed and refrigerated.

The whole procedure of putting them together was a lot of fun, from the rolling out of the dough to application of the sausage links with a pastry bag to the pastry squares to the brushing with an egg wash. It was all captured, too, by our photographer, Russ Hons.

But the best part was eating the pigs, with a dab of homemade hot mustard. Accompanied by a nice bowl of chicken noodle and vegetable soup, it was the perfect repast for a below-zero February day.

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Photos by Russ Hons

Dutch Pigs in a Blanket
PASTRY:
3 cups flour
2 sticks butter or margarine
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Milk (up to 1 cup)
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut butter or margarine into mixture using a pastry cutter, until fine. Blend and add small amounts of milk up to 1 cup. Then form into ball.
MEAT:
1½ pounds breakfast sausage (seasoned)
½ pound ground beef
Mix meat together with bread hook in mixer. Do not use hands. Chill.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about ¼-inch thick.Shape the “pigs” as small sausage links using a large pasty bag. Place the pigs on the edge of dough that is cut into 3-inch square rectangles.
Brush pastry next to meat lightly with water. Using your hands, roll the dough around meat 1½ times, leaving the ends open.
Place seam side down on parchment paper lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough and meat. Brush top with egg wash and bake in 335-degree preheated oven for about 30 minutes.
Note: Can be frozen fresh and baked at a later date.