Homemade Sausage Rolls
If you have never had a homemade sausage roll, then your life is about to change for the better. Yes, that's what I said. You can make them in no time flat, and they are totally delicious. My entire household became hooked on them as their lunch of choice during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Homemade Sausage Rolls vs Shop Bought
I didn't think I liked sausage rolls for years and years. That's because I'd only ever eaten cold shop-bought mass produced ones, which left an unpleasant, slimey feel in my mouth. I couldn't understand why everyone loved them so much.
It was only a few years ago that I discovered freshly baked. Old puff pastry, particularly when cold, has an altogether different texture to freshly baked, hot puff pastry. And freshly baked hot sausage rolls... they really are a different animal altogether from shop bought. Regardless of whether they're hot or cold really.
Ready Made Puff Pastry
Every chef tells you to buy puff pastry, as making it is not worth the effort. Who am I to argue? I buy the ready rolled puff pastry sheets for this, which makes this homemade sausage roll pastry even quicker.
However I have discovered some interesting things over the years I've been making these. All supermarket ready rolled Puff Pastry is not created equal.
For a start, the branded one you may be familiar with is more expensive per pack than supermarket own brand ones. Yet it weighs less and it feels thinner. Who knew?
So I buy supermarket own brand puff pastry sheets which are, seemingly, not all made in the same place. As I presumed they would be. And they're not all of the same quality either. And my favourite is... *drumroll*... Co-op Puff Pastry. Mainly because it doesn't all crack when you unroll it as some of the others do, so your sausage rolls look particularly pretty when you use it. That said, nobody really cares what they look like. They're too busy eating them.
Whichever ready rolled puff pastry sheet you buy, they all come wrapped in a piece of baking parchment. Don't throw that away when you've unwrapped the pastry (yes, I used to do that too). Lay it on your baking sheet et voila! You can bake your sausage rolls on it. This way your baking sheet stays much cleaner, much easier than trying to clean off stuck-on pastry. You're welcome.
Good Quality Sausage Meat
We get our sausage meat from one of our local butchers (for we are lucky enough to have a few to choose from). This particular batch in the images was made with sausage meat from Davies and Sons Family Butcher in our village. If you don't have a local butcher, buy some decent sausages in the supermarket. Snip off one end of the casings and push the meat out on to the pastry, then spread along the pastry as shown below.
Variations
You can vary these by using different sausage meats. We've used everything: pork and apple, venison, beef, you name it. The boys always prefer good old traditional sausagemeat with black pepper. I like seeds on mine. If you are a regular reader of this blog you'll know I chuck herbs and seeds in and on everything, given half a chance. Seeds are also a good way to identify different meats too, particularly if you're using a vegetarian sausagemeat. So if I make multiple batches with different fillings to feed a crowd, I can tell which are which after they're baked.
HOMEMADE SAUSAGE ROLLS
Prepare yourself to have the finest sausage rolls you've ever eaten, ready to eat in no time flat. I fear it takes longer to explain how to make them than to actually make them.
Ingredients
- 225g good quality sausage meat
- 1 pack of Ready Rolled Puff Pastry (could be 375g, could be 320g, see above)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tbsp seeds if you intend to add seeds (sesame seeds, poppy seeds or similar small seeds which will stick to the top)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Unroll the puff pastry and leave it laying on the greaseproof paper 'portrait' way round.
3. Using a knife, cut down the middle so you have 2 sections of pastry.
4. Spread half your sausagemeat down the middle of one side in a long thin sausage shape, and do the same on the other side.
5. Fold one side of the pastry over, then the other, to create your roll. Do the same to the other side.
6. Turn over the roll so the seam is underneath.
7. Cut into sausage roll lengths.
8. Lift the whole piece of baking parchment on to a baking tray with the sausage rolls on it, and arrange them so none are sticking together.
9. Prick the tops of the sausage rolls with a knife or fork to allow air to escape, and brush with beaten egg.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for around 15 minutes, depending on the size of your sausage rolls. I start checking them at around 12 minutes as our oven runs hot, to ensure they don't catch.
11. Serve fresh from the oven. You might even get one or two yourself. If you're lucky.
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