May Daring Cooks' Challenge - En Croute

This month's Daring Cooks' Challenge introduced me to something new. Well, kind of. It put a new name to something I was familiar with!

Our lovely Monkey Queen of Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys, was our May Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to dive into the world of en Croute! We were encouraged to make Beef Wellington, Stuffed Mushroom en Croute and to bring our kids into the challenge by encouraging them to create their own en Croute recipes!

En Croute is a term for a food that has been wrapped in some kind of pastry dough and baked. Beef Wellington, as mentioned in the blog-check lines above, is the most well known, fancy en Croute dish, but there are tons of others, and our lovely hostess limited us only by the rules of wrapping something in some kind of dough and baking it. Fun!

I actually had all kinds of grand plans for this - I mean, the possibilities are endless, and deliciously so. But I wanted to make my own puff pastry dough to wrap... anything! And I kept running up against time for making it.

And then one evening, daddy wanted a fun treat with dinner. We had a package of mini-hot dogs in the fridge and he asked me if we had any kind of dough in which we could wrap them, making our own pigs-in-blankets.

Wait.

Wrapped in dough? Baked? Oh my goodness. Pigs in blankets are en Croute!

I whipped up a batch of my simple (yet delicious!) sourdough crescent dough and we got to work.

We rolled out the dough and cut it into strips.

Then we each started rolling.

We simply cut the dough as each mini-dog was wrapped and kept on rolling, soon filling two cookie sheets.

These cooked up beautifully. The dough doesn't puff like puff pastry does, but it browns and crisps and goes deliciously with the mini hot dogs.

Served with some mustard, they were a perfect treat.

(and, in case you were worried that that was all we had for dinner, we also had assorted leftovers and a healthy serving of broccoli to go with it - even with a fun dinner, we still need our veggies!)

So funny how putting a new name to something can totally fancy it up, right? These weren't pigs-in-blankets - they were mini sausages en Croute. In fact... every time I've ever made apple dumplings, I was actually making a fancy French dessert, right? Pommes en Croute? Awesome!

So, Monkey Queen, I can't wait to dive more fully into the world of en Croute - there are so many meals that would be completely amazing wrapped up in delicious pastry.

To see the challenge as prepared this month, with some mouthwateringly inspiring recipes, check it out here.

And to see the other amazing dishes wrapped and baked this month in the Daring Kitchen, you can check them out here.

Sourdough-Crescent-Wrapped Mini-Hot Dogs

(using this sourdough crescent dough recipe)

1 cup flour (I used all purpose, you can easily substitute whole wheat)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoons butter

2/3 (give or take) sourdough starter

1 package (about 40) mini-hot dogs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.

Combine together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and sugar.

Cut or rub in the butter.

Mix in the sourdough starter and stir together to make a soft dough.

Gently knead the dough for about one minute.

Divide dough in half, reserving one as you work with the other.

Roll the dough to about 1/8" thick. Cut the rolled dough into strips just shorter than the hot dogs are wide. Roll each hot dog, pressing to seal. Line the wrapped hot dogs on your prepared baking sheet.

Continue until all hot dogs are wrapped.

Bake for 12 minutes.

Enjoy!