Sausage rolls in my mind are a match made in heaven, delicious crisp, flaky, buttery pastry wrapped around a succulent sausage. (Sounds a bit “carry on”, keep your double entendres to yourselves ;-)).
Sausage Rolls
My eldest son has always had a morbid fear of sausages rolls and cocktail sausages, built from many children’s parties, where a tub of cold cocktail sausages and prepacked cold sausage rolls are the main stay of the kids buffet. Cold, damp pastry is never good in my opinion.
Eventually this year I convinced him to try a freshly made sausage roll straight out of the oven. To make the transition to real sausage rolls I used his favourite sausages in the centre, wrapped in a buttery, crispy homemade ruff puff pastry. He was a convert.
Sausage Rolls
These are great for picnics or can be cut up smaller for buffets and finger food. To make them a little more adult, a small dollop of onion marmalade or Branston pickle in them before you roll them up gives them a little extra flavour.
Now you could cheat and buy some puff pastry and sausages and wack that in the oven but I think the rough puff pastry is pretty easy to make and makes a world of difference to the end product.
Rough puff is easy to make but it does take time, more because it needs to be rested in the fridge in between rolling to keep the butter cold and chilled for a couple of hours before being used. I normally make it the night before and leave it in the fridge for baking on Saturday.
Sausage Roll
Makes: 6 large
Oven Temp: Gas 6, 400F, 200C (180C Fan)
Ingredients
225g plain flour
200g chilled butter
180ml chilled water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ tsp salt
6 of your favourite sausages
1 egg to glaze
Instructions
1. Put the butter into the freezer for 15 mins before use. Then cut into cubes.
2. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and add the butter.
3. Mix the butter around with a butter/dinner knife, to separate the cubes and coat them in flour. Do this gently to keep the butter in lumps.
4. Mix the water and lemon juice together in a jug and pour it into the flour and butter mixture. Reserve a little.
5. Using a butter/dinner knife, stir and cut the contents of the bowl several times, turning the bowl around as you chop the butter into the flour, bringing the dough together.
6. The dough should be quite wet and sticky, if not add a little more of the reserved water.
7. Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and shape it into a rectangle about 30cm x 20cm.
8. With the pastry vertically on the work surface, fold the bottom third of the pastry up onto the middle third, then the top third down onto the other thirds. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
9. Bring the pastry out of the fridge, with the folded edge to the sides (90 degrees to the way you rolled it the first time), roll the pastry again into the same size rectangle as the original narrow rectangle and fold in the same way again.
10. Chill again in the fridge. Repeat this twice more. After the last rolling stage, wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for two hours or leave overnight.
11. When you are ready to make your sausage rolls, preheat the oven to 200c/180c (Fan). Carefully remove the skin from the sausage by cutting the skin along the length of the sausage. You want to retain the shape of the sausage to wrap the pastry around.
12. Roll out the pastry so it is 3 sausages long and about 30 cm wide.
13. Cut the pastry length ways so you have 2 long pieces 15 cm wide . Then cut each piece into 3 rectangles the length of a sausage each.
14. Place a sausage on the edge and roll up. Seal the edge of the pastry with some egg wash and place on a baking tray with the join underneath. Slash 4 times diagonally across the top and repeat with the other sausages. Then brush egg wash on the tops of all the sausage rolls. If you want more bite size sausage rolls cut each one into 4.
15. Bake for 25-30 mins at 200c/180c (fan) until golden brown and crispy.
Adapted from a Paul Hollywood recipe.
- Oven Temp: Gas 6, 400F, 200C (180C Fan)
- 225g plain flour
- 200g chilled butter
- 180ml chilled water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 of your favourite sausages
- 1 egg to glaze
- Put the butter into the freezer for 15 mins before use. Then cut into cubes.
- Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and add the butter.
- Mix the butter around with a butter/dinner knife, to separate the cubes and coat them in flour. Do this gently to keep the butter in lumps.
- Mix the water and lemon juice together in a jug and pour it into the flour and butter mixture. Reserve a little.
- Using a butter/dinner knife, stir and cut the contents of the bowl several times, turning the bowl around as you chop the butter into the flour, bringing the dough together.
- The dough should be quite wet and sticky, if not add a little more of the reserved water.
- Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and shape it into a rectangle about 30cm x 20cm.
- With the pastry vertically on the work surface, fold the bottom third of the pastry up onto the middle third, then the top third down onto the other thirds. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Bring the pastry out of the fridge, with the folded edge to the sides (90 degrees to the way you rolled it the first time), roll the pastry again into the same size rectangle as the original narrow rectangle and fold in the same way again.
- Chill again in the fridge. Repeat this twice more. After the last rolling stage, wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for two hours or leave overnight.
- When you are ready to make your sausage rolls, preheat the oven to 200c/180c (Fan). Carefully remove the skin from the sausage by cutting the skin along the length of the sausage. You want to retain the shape of the sausage to wrap the pastry around.
- Roll out the pastry so it is 3 sausages long and about 30 cm wide.
- Cut the pastry length ways so you have 2 long pieces 15 cm wide . Then cut each piece into 3 rectangles the length of a sausage each.
- Place a sausage on the edge and roll up. Seal the edge of the pastry with some egg wash and place on a baking tray with the join underneath. Slash 4 times diagonally across the top and repeat with the other sausages. Then brush egg wash on the tops of all the sausage rolls. If you want more bite size sausage rolls cut each one into 4.
- Bake for 25-30 mins at 200c/180c (fan) until golden brown and crispy.