I wish I was a shrimp puff.

Then everyone would be in love with me.
Raise your hand if you remember that old Oscar Mayer commercial –
Oh I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Weiner. 
That is what I’d truly like to be.  
‘Cause if I was an Oscar Mayer Weiner, everyone would be in love with me.

I know there are a handful of you, ahem, vintage kids that are now singing it in your head. And will be for the next 3 hours. You’re welcome.

But back to my shrimp puffs. My favorite appetizer ever. 
Everyone I’ve ever made them for loves them.
It’s true. They are waaay more popular than I am (which isn’t saying a whole lot, so let me just tell you they are delicious and leave it at that).
I get asked for the recipe all the time, and I really wish I could take the credit for it (especially  because I’d like to pin the photo and send it back to my blog), but because I’m nauseatingly honest and because I know that Santa already has his eye on me, I’ll have to give all the credit to Pillsbury.
In fact, you can find the recipe and a photo HERE, but let me just say my photos are way better.
Told you I was honest.

Michelle’s Pillsbury’s Famous Shrimp Puffs ~ 

3

tablespoons cream cheese spread (from 8-oz container)

1

teaspoon soy sauce

1/4

teaspoon ground ginger

1/2

teaspoon finely chopped garlic

1

can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated butter flake crescent dinner rolls (8 rolls)

16

uncooked deveined peeled large shrimp (about 1/2 lb), thawed if frozen, tails removed, if desired

3

tablespoons sesame seed

1/3

cup SMUCKER’S® Apricot Preserves

• Step 1: Prepare shrimp. 
• I buy big bags of frozen shrimp at Costco, so I thaw them in a bowl of lukewarm water for about 10 minutes.  Then I pop the tails off, and pull out the poop by slicing along the dark (poop) line with a sharp knife and pulling out the poop string with a paper towel.  Gross and horrid, but not as gross and horrid as eating it.

• Step 2:  Set oven to 375°, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and pour sesame seeds into a small, flat bowl.
• Step 3: Prepare cream cheese mixture
• Mix cream cheese, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a small bowl.

• 
  Step 4: Where the ‘Pillsbury’ part of this comes in
• Unroll the dough and cut each triangle in half, so you end up with 16 very scalene looking triangles (always happy when I get to use some of my old 4th grade teacher vocabulary – proves those diplomas were totally worth it).  Spread the cream cheese mixture over the dough.

Step 5: Roll ’em up

Pull apart the triangles (they’ll stretch….it’s okay), pat the shrimp dry and lay one shrimp on the wide end of the triangle (the BASE if you will).  Roll that sucker up all the way to the end.

Step 6: Dip and bake

Press the top of the little bundle (the side opposite the pointy tail) into the sesame seeds.
Place on the parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for about 20 – 25 min. or until nicely browned.

Step 7: Glaze

When the shrimp puffs are just about done place the Apricot Preserves (I use good old Smucker’s) in the microwave and cook for about 20 seconds until it is the consistency of a glaze.

And now after all this work taking and emailing and collaging and posting these photos I’m totally pinning this picture.
I’ve earned it.
I’ll even give the Pillsbury site another plug and a thank you for introducing me to these little nuggets of heaven because I’m a rule follower and I don’t want to be in violation of any kind of copyright laws which might ban me from ever making or eating shrimp puffs again and because of the whole Santa watching thing. Again.

Let me know if you try them…and how popular they make you.