Pigs in Blankets-Bacon and Sausage Rolls for Christmas Trimmings

French Tart's Note:

These quirkily named "Pigs in Blankets" are the traditional British accompaniment to the Christmas roast turkey dinner - we call them "Trimmings". You will often see pubs, restaurants and hotels advertising Christmas Dinner with ALL the trimmings - these will be part of those trimmings that they mention! We can eat these with NO roast turkey - they are what everyone grabs whilst no one else is looking in the Post Christmas Dinner kitchen! (I have known my husband to secrete a couple in his pocket when he was nearly caught!!) They are VERY easy to prepare and need very little oven time, either cook them before or add them to the oven for the last 25 to 30 minutes of the turkey or roast potato cooking time. These also make great appetisers, skewer them with a cocktail stick and serve them with cranberry or sweet chilli sauce as a dip.

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 24.0 Bacon a ...

• 24 small sausages, such as chipolata sausages or 1 lb chipolata sausage , separated into smaller sausages
• 12 slices streaky bacon
• cocktail stick

Directions:

1. To Prepare:.
2. Cut each rasher of bacon in half and stretch them with a knife; run the back of a knife along the length of each rasher of bacon to flatten and stretch them slightly - this stops them shrinking during cooking.
3. Wrap one half rasher of bacon around each sausage, making sure that the seal is underneath the bacon/sausage roll. Skewer with a cocktail stick if neccessary.
4. Cover them with cling film or place them in a sealed container and store them in the refrigerator until ready to cook or place them in the freezer and defrost them in the refrigerator on Christmas Eve.
5. To Cook:.
6. Place on a lightly greased oven tray and roast in a pre-heated oven, 200C/400F/gas Mark 5, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the bacon is cooked and crisp.
7. Set to one side and keep warm until needed.
8. These can be cooked ahead of time and reheated in the oven alongside the turkey or roast potatoes for about 5 minutes.
9. Serve alongside the roast turkey - I always allow 2 per person.
10. If you skewer thse with a cocktail stick, they make great appetisers too! Serve with cranberry sauce as a dip.
11. NOTE: If you can only get the normal size chipolata sausages, gently squeeze them in two or three places - see my photos - to make 3 or 4 smaller sausages from 1 longer one; 6 normal sized sausages will yield between 18 and 24 smaller sausages!

Reviews

[SarahEmmm]

Nice recipe, Tart! This is exactly how I do them, so I shall replace the instructions in my Christmas menu with your recipe. For our sweet-toothed cousins, try brushing them with a little maple syrup.

[Sydney Mike]

Rather using what are cocktail sausages here in the USA, I decided to cut up some Italian sausages (some mild, some sweet) for this recipe & they made some GREAT APPETIZERS! Will admit that I also served them with 2 different dips, one was my regular cranberry sauce, & the other was a combination of cranberry sauce & a mile chunky salsa ~ Both were well received! Now I'm happy to keep hold of this recipe til the end of this year, when I can include these GREAT TASTIES with some holiday turkey! Thanks for a great recipe! [Tagged, made & reviewed for one of my groupmates in the Aus/NZ Recipe Swap #24]