Yesterday I made cranberry sauce and as promised I also made Pigs in blankets ready for the freezer. Piggies as I call them are my all time favourite christmas tradition. I always make way more than I need just so I get to snack on them!!

I keep seeing ready made pigs in blankets in shops but buying them would make me feel really lazy.  Ive been making my own for ever but never really got them to come out perfectly.

It took me ages to work out why my pigs in blankets just didn’t work out till a couple of years ago a friend shared a little secret – you need to really flatten the streaky bacon out before wrapping the sausages – and wrap them well. This way the pigs are snuggled in their blankets and don’t fall to pieces.

Apart from that trick I cant stress enough that good chipolata sausages are a must – and if you can get them from the butcher in links even better, as you can usually twist each chipolata into 2 smaller links which then give you traditional small piggies without the extra cost.

Ingredients

• a pack of quality port chipolatas
• 1 rasher of good smoked streaky bacon (I use maple smoked) for each chipolata

Method

• Lay your chipolatas out in a long string on a chopping board.
• Twist your first chipolata in the middle to create 2 smaller links – this may push the sausage meat along slightly.
• Continue twisting till you reach the last link – you may lose the end link if your sausages are tightly packed but my butcher always leaves lots of room in his.
• Cut up the links at the new joins to create your piggies and set aside.
• Lay a rasher of bacon on the board and then with the back end of a knife push the bacon out until its thinner and much longer. Cut this new rasher into 2
• Roll a piggy in one half  rasher. This should roll around a time and a half – giving you a tightly rolled piggy. repeat this for all your piggies.

Once you have completed all of them you could lay them in a foil tray and freeze till you need them. I always make a few trays and then have spares if I feel the need.

When you are ready to cook these just defrost the pop them in the oven for 30 minutes at 200c whilst the turkey is resting.