This past week, I decided to give using yeast a try again and made some brioche-based goods. One of them was the pigs in a brioche blanket from Claire Saffitz’s Dessert Person. Though I followed the book, it looks like there is a recipe online here.

I was interested in this recipe because one, it reminded me of those hot dog buns I would see at Asian bakeries and two, it gave me incentive to work with brioche after finding some yeast in my cabinet.

I don’t have that much experience with working with yeast-based goods, due to trauma from previous baking disasters involving yeast. Most notably, my first attempt making cinnamon rolls in college–which ended with some pretty tough/hard rolls that never expanded and this exchange between me and a roommate:

Me: [over-working the cinnamon roll dough and repeatedly trying to roll it out into a sheet without much success at 1AM in the morning]

Friend who has seen me going at this for the past hour: If I were in hell, I’d be doing what you’re doing.

Yeah, so not the best experience.

Luckily, this attempt wasn’t too bad.

Making Brioche

I first started by proofing 1 tsp of yeast in some milk heated to 150F. I was a little skeptical about whether or not I would see any foaming because I was using lactose-free milk but to my surprise, I did see bubbles, which made me curious of what sugar the yeast would have been feeding on. I guess lactase only breaks down lactose into its simpler forms like glucose and galactose (which is why lactase-free milk often tastes ‘sweet’).

Lactose-free =/= sugar-free

Anyway.

This was the first time that I got to use the dough hook attachment on my standmixer. This was one of those recipes where I was very glad to have a standmixer. I think this task would have been far more labor-intensive, time-consuming, and messier without it. I could even hear the standmixer straining as it worked with the dough.

I was also surprised to see how much butter this brioche dough could take. After mixing in the initial ingredients of flour, sugar, milk, yeast, eggs, I slowly added 2 sticks of butter. My main thought was: “Oh this is a lot of butter…”

I then tried to form the dough into a ball but it sort of took a more amorphous shape into the bowl that I put it in to rise. I then let the dough have its first rise over the course of an hour before putting it in the fridge.

Making the Pigs in Blanket

Based on a Safeway worker’s recommendation, I bought Nathan’s Beef Franks for the hot dog. Apparently, they’re one of the best brand of hot dogs.

I partitioned the dough in half and worked to divide that half of dough into 64g portions. The idea was to roll out each portion into a thin 20 in rope and wrap it around the dog. As I was rolling it, it got increasingly harder to manage since it was also a warm day and I could feel the butter in the dough melting in my hands as I worked with it. I figured that rolling each piece was going to be tedious and increasingly more difficult as the day got hotter.

My compromise that I found that also decently work was to treat the brioche dough like making noodles. Grasping both ends like a jump rope, I slapped the dough repeatedly against the board until it stretched to the length I wanted it to. This method was easier, versus rolling it out, taking 3-4 minutes, as opposed to 10 minutes of constant careful rolling. I’ll take the shortcut.

Afterwards, I patted the hot dogs dry with a paper towel and lightly dusted the franks with flour. Starting from the middle, I draped one rope over dog and worked to cover both ends with the dough to the best of my ability.

I then let the dough rest in the fridge for a few hours since I had some other things to do on Sunday. When I came back, I was able to let the pigs proof/rise for a second time and then apply a nice egg wash + sesame seed sprinkle to them before popping them in the oven at ~25 minutes. I rotated the tray at around the 17 minute mark.

The pigs in the blankets definitely did expand. I liked the golden brown look of the brioche on the dogs. After letting it cool down, I cut the dogs into 6 pieces. I did notice that the moisture from the franks made it so that it was really hard for the frank pieces to stay within the brioche bun. I noticed in some cases that the frank would just fall out the minute that I cut into the dog. I think I would have to dry them more or put more flour on them next time.

As for the taste, it predictably tasted pretty good. The brioche part was less soft than I expected, maybe from being a tad over-baked and being stretched, rather than rolled out. However, it was still good. As for the frank, it tasted good but nothing particularly mind-blowing. It’s hard to hate pigs in a blanket. It’s an easy appetizer and crowd-pleaser. I brought the batch over to team meeting and saw it disappear in a matter of minutes—mostly with the children, haha.

I wouldn’t mind making brioche again but I don’t think it would be worth making this for pigs in a blanket. My verdict is that these are good but Pillsbury Crescent Rolls + mini franks still reign supreme in this case.