Crescent Dog Snake

It is so easy to turn crescent dogs into a snake.

You just cut the hot dogs into slices, wrap them in a long strip of dough, and decorate it to look like a snake. I'll show you the step-by-step process below.

NOTE: This post was originally posted in 2010 on my Hungry Halloween website which now forwards here to Hungry Happenings.

No matter how elaborate my Halloween party food is, my guests always get excited when I serve crescent dogs. They are so popular that I thought they'd be fun to turn into something creepy for our Carnival of the Creepy Crawlers party along with other creepy and bug-themed recipes.

Are you ready to make a slithering snake snack? Let's grab some ingredients.

Ingredients

Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Sheet - If you can't find the tubes of this dough, use pizza dough instead. If you choose to use regular crescent roll dough, you will need to pinch together all the seams.
flour - For dusting your work surface.
hot dogs- Use your favorite hot dogs. I like Nathan's.
Orange and Black food coloring spray or food coloring - I used orange and black because I made this snake for our Halloween party. You can use any colors you like.
roasted red pepper - You'll cut this to be the snake's tongue. A red bell pepper would work too.

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a baking sheet or baking stone in the oven to preheat, as well.
• Unroll the crescent sheet on a lightly floured work surface.
• Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to an 8”x13” rectangle.
• Cut into two 4”x13” strips.
• Cut 3 hot dogs into ¾” slices.
• Remove the end pieces. Lay together down the middle of one dough strip leaving an inch of uncovered dough at one end (for the head).
• Bring the two sides of the dough up and over the hot dogs. Pinch the dough together to seal shut. Roll over so the seam is on the bottom.
• Form a snakehead out of the hot dog-less end.
• Cut one more hot dog into ¾” slices and remove the end pieces.
• Lay down the middle at the very end of the other dough strip.
• Cut the tips off the remaining two hot dogs.
• Lay them together on a cutting board.
• Cut along the edges of the hot dogs, gradually tapering the ends to a point.
• Cut the tapered hot dogs into ½”-¾” slices.
• Set in the middle of the dough strip.
• Bring the two sides of the dough up and over the hot dogs.
• Pinch the dough together to seal shut.
• Roll over so the seam is on the bottom.
• Lay a large piece of parchment paper on your work surface.
• Arrange the two halves of the snake in a slithering pattern on the paper.
• Pinch the dough together in the middle of the snake.

• Spray stripes over the snake. I used Wilton Food Mist food coloring spray to color my snake, but I might recommend just brushing on black and orange food coloring as it might be a little neater.
• This is a pretty easy recipe to create, the only challenge is moving the snake once it is completed.
• Spray (or brush) stripes of orange and black all along the snake.

As you can see the food coloring spray creates quite a mess on the parchment paper.

I didn't want the spray to burn in the oven, so I carefully transferred the snake to a piece of non-stick foil set on the backside of a baking sheet.

• Cut out two circles and one tongue from the strip of roasted red pepper. Cut them larger than you want them, as they will shrink in the oven. Mine are smaller than I would have liked them.
• Attach to the snake.
• Slide the snake and the foil onto the hot baking sheet or baking stone in the oven.
• Bake for 10-14 minutes until golden brown.
• Allow the snack to cool for 5 minutes before transferring the snake to a serving platter. Serve hot.

Shaping the snake was really easy.

Moving it once it's baked was a bit more challenging.

I used a long metal spatula to lift the back end of the snake up and I held the front end and swiftly moved it onto a plastic wrap covered leaf paper.

I found this fun paper at United Art and Education and plan to cover my kitchen island with it for our party.  I'll cover the entire thing with plastic wrap and place the food directly on top.

Related Recipes

If you are looking for more recipes to make for a creepy crawler Halloween party, you might also like these ideas.

Corn Dog Centipede

OREO Cheese Ball Rat

Spider Cookies

Be sure to check out all the Halloween recipes here on Hungry Happenings.