Happy World Oceans Day! feat. Goldfish in a Blanket
Goldfish in a Blanket
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 tsp active dry yeast 3 g; can also use 1⁄2 packet dry yeast or 7 g fresh yeast
- 3 tbsp sugar 38 g
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water 125 g
- 2 tbsp milk powder aka dry milk 13 g
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 57 g
- 1/2 tsp salt 3 g
- 2 cups all purpose flour 250 g
For assembling the goldfish
- 12 mini sausages eg. cocktail wieners or breakfast sausages
- 1 egg white optional, for brushing
Instructions
Knead the dough
- Add yeast, sugar, and water to the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if kneading by hand). Let stand for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to bloom.
- Add remaining dough ingredients (milk powder, butter, salt, flour) and mix together using the dough hook on the lowest speed setting. Once flour has been fully incorporated, increase speed to the second-lowest setting.
- If the mixture is still very wet and sticking to the bowl, add more flour, 1 tbsp at a time, up to 1/2 cup. (Be patient. The dough may look too sticky at first but after a couple minutes of kneading it will start coming away from the sides of the bowl.) Knead for a total of 5–8 minutes.
- The dough should now be quite soft but not really sticking to the bowl or your hands. Take the dough out of the bowl, spray with oil, and put it back in.
- Cover (with a lid, damp towel, or plastic wrap) and let rise for 1 hour.
Assemble the goldfish
- If using raw sausage, cook them first following package directions. (If there are no instructions, roasting at 400 °F for 15–20 minutes will do it.)
- After an hour's rise, the dough should be doubled or almost doubled in size. Punch it a few times to get rid of some of the air, then turn out onto a work surface.
- Shape the dough into a rough log and slice into 12 equal pieces.
- Roll each piece thinly into an oval shape.
- Place a sausage in the center (but with more room at the bottom than at the top). See pictures below for more guidance.
- Slice the dough on either side of the sausage into broad strips. See pictures. It helps if you use a pizza cutter for this, but a small sharp knife works too!
- Alternating sides, wrap each dough across the sausage, one over the other, to form a pleated pattern, leaving a few strips of dough at the bottom for a tail. See pictures.
- Fan out the strips at the bottom for a pretty tail!
- Spread out each goldfish on a baking sheet, cover, and let rise again for 30 minutes. (They won't grow as much this time.)
- Optional: gently brush the tops of each goldfish with whisked egg whites.
- Bake the goldfish at 375 °F for 12–15 minutes or until golden brown on top.
- Move to a cooling rack for ten minutes, then enjoy!
Recipe Notes
You can, of course, use this recipe to make regular pigs in a blanket. Skip the extra folding steps—just roll up a sausage in each piece of dough and bake!
The dough recipe is adapted from Taste of Home’s recipe for crescent rolls. I used milk powder, also known as dry milk, because it’s convenient, but you can use fresh milk as well. Just swap the water for milk and leave out the powder.
If you’re unclear on how to fold and shape the goldfish, check out the step-by-step photo guide at the end of this post.
Celebrating World Oceans Day
June 8 is International World Oceans Day!
Did you know that over 80% of the ocean is still undiscovered?! It’s one of those things that boggles my mind every time (along with space, time travel, people who don’t like bread, etc). We’ve been on this earth for millions of years and have colonized just about every square inch of land, yet we know so little about the ocean. But to be honest, we are kinda fucking it up in a lot of ways. You know, over-fishing, garbage patches, climate warming killing off entire ecosystems… yeah humansareterriblepeople
However, there are also plenty of great things happening out there in the deep blue! In addition to pushing for sustainability and conservation, World Oceans Day is also about highlighting innovations happening with ocean resources.
The idea of a special day to celebrate our oceans and increase awareness about their importance was first introduced by us Canadians, which is a pretty cool bonus.
The Ocean’s Answer to Pigs in a Blanket
Although you wouldn’t be wrong wondering why (whoa, look at that alliteration) I didn’t make actual seafood for World Oceans Day, I have a simple answer: I’m outta fish. Well, there are some canned tuna and sardines in the pantry, but that’s boring.
I wanted to make something a bit more visually ocean-y, so I started by Googling “fish bread.” I know… not appetizing. I was surprised to see lots of results, mostly recipes featuring the popular Korean and Japanese pastry. However, you need a special fish-shaped mold to make those, which I didn’t have.
Then I noticed a Youtube video posted by Raihana’s Cuisines for making a braided fish-shaped bread. Raihana gets all the credit for inspiring these little goldfish.
What Kind of Sausage to Use?
Cocktail wieners are the go-to for pigs in a blanket, so they would be fantastic in this recipe as well. However, I opted for mini breakfast sausages instead.
I rarely buy sausages (or cured products in general), but when I do I try to find ones that are nitrate-free. It’s pretty hard to find nitrate-free sausages in the grocery store—another reason I don’t buy that often. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a local business here in Waterloo called Meatarian. They’re a small shop specializing in smoked meats, and they carry a huge variety of sausages, all nitrate-free! They usually have a booth open at the Kitchener Market, but since COVID shut that down, they are now doing deliveries within KW (free for orders of $25).
My first order from them included some garlic sausages (haven’t tried those yet) as well as a pack of mini breakfast sausages. They were the perfect size for making pigs in a blanket, and Kevin said they were delicious.
If you live in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, considering trying these folks out. The service was fast and friendly, and it feels great to cook with products that you know were made with care.
Step-by-Step Pictures for Folding Goldfish in a Blanket
Although these fishies look fancy once baked, they’re actually very easy to shape. The dough is nice and buttery, so there’s also no need to worry about it sticking to your fingers.
I put together this set of photos to help you through the assembly process. Note that although these pictures use a different filling (I was testing out a sweet variation), the steps are exactly the same if you are using sausages.
Roll the dough into a rough oval or rectangular shape, place filling in the middle (with more room at the bottom than at the top). 
Using a pizza cutter or small sharp knife, make an equal number of cuts in the dough on either side of the filling. 
Fold the top two sections of dough downwards and across, and press firmly into the dough to secure their place. Continue wrapping each strip of dough across the filling, alternating sides. 
Pinch the last two strips of dough firmly down to secure. 
Gently transfer the goldfish pastry to a baking sheet and let rise for 30 minutes before baking. 
Optional: cut additional strips into the goldfish tail and fan them out slightly to give the goldfish a beautiful tail!
