Homemade Sausage Rolls

I'm so proud of this pastry - and it's easy!

In these uncertain times, being able to cook is really important. It’s something that has kept me sane, and I’ve had some extra time to be able to make stuff I never normally would have. You can make this recipe even easier, by buying pre-made pastry, but I haven't made it in ages and wanted to make sure I still had it (spoiler, I do).

Pre-bake (I got ten out of the recipe and froze the other two).

One thing I’m really missing is a big meaty sausage roll. The kind where the filling is thick and flavoursome and the pastry is fresh and crisp. You cannot get this from a supermarket pre-packaged sausage roll. I mean, I’m still buying and eating them, but they’re quite underwhelming.

Post bake, smells so good

The obvious next step was to take things into my own hands. I whipped up some rough puff pastry (took about 50 minutes) and filled it with sausage meat that I randomly flavoured with anything that sounded good.

And it was good.

Makes 10 sausage rolls, serves as many as your heart desires

Ingredients for the puff pastry

• 200g plain flour
• Pinch salt
• 175g butter, not cold from the fridge
• 100ml cold water

Ingredients for the sausage filling

• 400g pork sausage meat
• ½ onion
• 1 tsp sage
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp mustard
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Ground black pepper

To finish

• 1 egg, beaten
• A sprinkling of seeds (sesame seeds, poppy seeds etc)

Method

Start with the pastry as it needs time to chill. Your butter should be nearing room temperature but not soft, I took mine out of the fridge about 2 hours before using.

Measure out the flour, stir in the salt, then add the butter (cut into chunks). Roughly rub the butter into the flour with your fingers. There will be big globs of butter – you want that.

Add in about 75ml of the water and mix until you have a rough, slightly soft dough. Add more water if needed to get it to come together.

Cover in cling film and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Come back to it, form into a rough rectangle on a floured surface.

And roll out until long and thin, like 15cm x40 cm ish. Roll in only one direction.

Fold the bottom third into the middle, and put the top third over the top of that.

Spin it around 1 quarter turn and roll it out as before, folding over again.

Turn it once more, roll out and repeat the folding. Put the folded pastry in the fridge again for 20 minutes.

Now you can make the filling. Chop the onion up small and add it to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well with your hands.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Now, remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out once more to a long rectangle, but a little wider than before, closer to 20cm by 45 cm.

Place the meat filling in a long cylinder shape up the centre of the pastry.

Brush one long edge with beaten egg. Roll up, keeping the seam at the bottom. The egg should help to bind it together. Cut into whichever size you like, I went for 10 medium ones.

Place on a baking tray, brush with the egg and sprinkle with some sesame seeds or whatever you have on hand. I had some yummy “everything but the bagel” seasoning from a kind friend, so I used that!

Bake for 35 minutes until the pastry is golden and the meaty filling is cooked through.

Enjoy hot or cold!