Oh, I’m sorry, what was that? You can’t muster up the energy to be scared this Halloween? Well, then I have someone I want you to meat. I mean…meet.
These are Hallo-Weenies!
AuthorRetroRuth
From Recipes for Holidays Round the Calendar, Home Service Department, 1960
Tested Recipe!
[cooked-sharing]
Grind frankfurters (hot dogs) in a food chopper or food processor. Mash baked beans with a fork. Add pickle relish and mustard. Combine with ground hot dogs and mix well.
Make biscuits according to the directions on the mix box. Roll 1/3 of the dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut rectangles about 3"x5" and shape a heaping tablespoon of meat filling down the center of each. Form into rolls and pinch ends of each Hallo-Weenie together.
For masks, roll out another 1/3 of the dough, and cut circles, about the size of a coffee can. Place filling on half of each one, use a small round cutter to cut the eyes. Fold this half over the filling and pinch to seal.
To make Jack-O-Lantern faces, cut dough into rounds with a cookie cutter. With a sharp knife, cut eyes and a mouth from half of the rounds. Put filling on the plain rounds, cover with the cut-out rounds and seal edges. (Tip: You don't need to cut out a space for the mouth, just slit the dough in a smile or frown, and it will stretch open when you place it over the filling.)
Arrange the Hallo-Weenies on a greased baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
Ingredients
Directions
Grind frankfurters (hot dogs) in a food chopper or food processor. Mash baked beans with a fork. Add pickle relish and mustard. Combine with ground hot dogs and mix well.
Make biscuits according to the directions on the mix box. Roll 1/3 of the dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut rectangles about 3"x5" and shape a heaping tablespoon of meat filling down the center of each. Form into rolls and pinch ends of each Hallo-Weenie together.
For masks, roll out another 1/3 of the dough, and cut circles, about the size of a coffee can. Place filling on half of each one, use a small round cutter to cut the eyes. Fold this half over the filling and pinch to seal.
To make Jack-O-Lantern faces, cut dough into rounds with a cookie cutter. With a sharp knife, cut eyes and a mouth from half of the rounds. Put filling on the plain rounds, cover with the cut-out rounds and seal edges. (Tip: You don't need to cut out a space for the mouth, just slit the dough in a smile or frown, and it will stretch open when you place it over the filling.)
Arrange the Hallo-Weenies on a greased baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
Notes
I almost forgot to make a Halloween Treat for the blog this year! I’ve been running around getting Halloween stuff ready for two kids, and when I was finished I had to sit down for about two hours to remember what I had forgotten to do.
Luckily I came across this recipe in my “To Make” pile (when the giant pile fell off my desk onto the floor) just in time to whip out a batch of….Weenie guys.
Don’t waste your time with a masher on beans. A fork worked way better.
Also, I took advantage of a loophole on this recipe. It just lists “pickle relish” in the recipe, but doesn’t say if it has to be sweet or dill. So I busted out the dill. I figured the sugary sweet baked beans were going to be plenty sweet for these boogers.
Waiting for their doom.
You think this is bad? Just wait for it.
There it is. We have reached the “it looks like barf” stage.
The baking mix I have right now isn’t my favorite, and it was really hard to roll out. I usually just make drop biscuits or pancakes with this, I don’t really roll out.
But Tom heard my cries of frustration from the home office and came out to save me.
Or, save the biscuits, I guess.
I just….this is so terrifying, isn’t it? I don’t think it could get worse.
Nope, nope, nope. I was wrong.
This one totally looked like Oogey Boogey. I should have slapped that “mask” above him on as a body and just gone for it.
The trip to the oven improved things slightly. It made them look like happy heads and not Gremlins.
I like how that one on the left is laughing at us. Like, “Look at you. Trying mid-century recipes. It’s adorable.”
Can you see the resemblance?
“This reminds me of the Twinkie Weiner sandwich.”
“Is it bad?”
“It’s a little dry.”
“What does it taste like?”
“A biscuit.”
The Verdict: Biscuits
From the Tasting Notes –
These were kind of fussy to make, but the kids really loved the faces. Alex ate two for dinner and said they were delicious, so they were a win with them. The filling ended up just tasting like sweet ham salad, so it wasn’t as barfy as its appearance led us to believe. In fact, I wish there would have been less biscuits and more filling. Tom and I thought the biscuits were a bit much. I probably didn’t roll them thin enough in the end, but I honestly think that pie crust would have worked better for this. OR you could make some cheese biscuits and have the filling be sloppy joes! I think that would be a better combo. Plus then the inside of the faces would be all red! Okay, that got dark fast. Anyway, if you haven’t found anything to make tomorrow night for dinner, you might want to steal the biscuit idea and fill them with chili or sloppy joes or something. Even ham and cheese would work. Happy Halloween!
This was a fun one! Don’t worry about getting “dark.” I make special things for season premieres and finales of “The Walking Dead,” so I have a blast with that. Pizza Skulls were a lot of work but really fun!
I have a recipe from _Anyone Can Bake_ (Royal Baking Powder, 1929) that does this but with just chopped ham, and no jack o’lantern faces. They just call them “picnic biscuits”.
I was telling a girlfriend of mine about you – encouraging her to look you up – so I decided I needed to re-visit your site.*
I’d forgotten what a total hoot you are. As in “amusing”, not “weird”. (Although you might be very happy with weird.)
* Plus I was looking for that ghastly ham/mustard/banana/cheese concoction. To show her – not to make and eat!! God NO!
The shot of everything mixed up? Definitely barfamazing! And soooo mid-century foodish. Last night I went down the rabbit hole of gelatin “salads.” I miss the 60s!
1 pound of meat, 1 pound of beans, and the amount of mustard I would put on one hot dog to season it… That is classic mid century seasoning ratio right there 🙂
Great idea about the pie crust.. I might try it with pie crust and like 5x the mustard!