Besides the British savory pies in South Africa, sausage rolls were also a tea-time treat! This recipe is so simple, yet it is honestly a crowd pleaser. How can anyone go wrong with puff pastry and tasty sausage?
Sausage rolls are a European specialty. While Americans have pigs in a blanket, the British have taken sausage roll recipes over the top. For Aussies, there are few things more Australian to munch on than a sausage roll - other than a meat pie. Sausage rolls and meat pies often get included by foreign food bloggers in lists on the best of ‘Australian cuisine‘. A sausage roll is traditional fare, takeaway food, fast food, snack food, street food, and party food.
Savoury pork mince wrapped in puff pastry came to Australia from Great Britain, where it’s a favourite with the English and Irish especially. Any bakery worth its salt has a row or two of them in their pie warmer every morning. Unlike the meat pie, hardly anyone messes with the formula for the great Australian sausage roll.
This sausage roll recipe could be called a classic only it will give you sausage rolls that are tastier than those you’ll buy from the takeaway joint or the frozen section at the supermarket. You also know what’s going in them, so they’re healthy. Again, the same thing definitely can’t be said of the frozen sausage rolls at the supermarket.
I recall bringing sausage rolls over to a party one year. I forgot it was a pot-luck dinner and an hour before the party, I was scrambling to make something. So I rummaged through the freezer and found some puff pastry and frozen ground pork. I transformed the frozen ground pork into sausage and decided to add a bit of frozen chili that was in my freezer. Not too much, but just enough to give it a bite.
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This recipe is fail-proof so the sausage rolls looked delicious. It wasn't until I got to the party that I decided to sample my own creation. Wow! It was amazingly spicy! I realized that I had cut up a frozen habanero chili!
In Australia, sausage rolls are warming snacks when you’re at a chilly sports stadium watching footie in winter. They’re morning tea for ‘smoko’ (a break) for a hungry tradie working on a construction site. At my primary school when I was a kid, the trend was to order a sausage roll in a hot dog bun and slather it with tomato sauce.
Update: Since posting this, we’ve been experimenting with Cambodian-inspired sausage rolls and meat pies.
Ingredients and Preparation
Meat - Bulk sausage (pork, beef, or chicken) is classic. DIY sausage is an economical option.
Pastry Dough - Premade, light, and tender puff pastry makes melt-in-your-mouth goodness.
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You can use any type of sausage: turkey, chicken, pork or beef. These days, supermarkets sell ready made sausage meat without the casing in the meat section. They come in all different flavors. If you don't want to make your own sausage, this is definitely an option. You can always add your own extra seasonings to the meat such as fennel (the distinctive taste in Italian sausage) or cayenne pepper chili for a bite. Make sure you taste the chili before adding it into the meat!
If you are making your own sausage, use a coarse ground meat with a 80% lean:fat ratio. If you have very lean ground meat in your freezer that does not have sufficient fat which helps make the sausage moist, add a teaspoon of olive oil.
My sausage recipe has a range of salt and garlic powder. You can start with the minimum amount. In order to test the taste of your sausage, take a teaspoon of the sausage and microwave if for about 20 seconds and taste it. You can then add additional seasonings accordingly. This avoids ruining an entire batch of sausage rolls.
Step-by-step instructions:
- To make the pastry, add the flour, butter, and salt to a bowl. Use your fingertips to briefly rub the butter into the flour. The mixture should be quite coarse-you want some larger pieces of butter. Add the water a tablespoon at a time and mix with a table knife until you have a rough dough. You may not need all the water.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a large rectangle, about 1 centimeter (½ inch) thick, with a short edge facing you. Fold the top third of the dough down to the middle then fold the bottom third on top of that (like folding a letter-if the pastry starts to get too warm or sticky, let it firm up in the refrigerator). Give the dough a quarter turn, roll it out to a large rectangle again, and repeat the folding. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
- Roll out the chilled pastry and fold as above one more time, then chill for another 30 minutes or until ready to use. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6). Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- To make the filling, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the onion, and fry for a few minutes until softened. Add the garlic and spices and cook for another minute until the mixture is fragrant. Stir in the harissa, then remove from the heat and pour into a bowl. Add the lamb to the bowl along with the chopped apricots, bread crumbs, lemon zest, and salt. Use your hands to mix, making sure everything is well combined.
- Lightly dust the work surface with flour and roll out the pastry to a large rectangle about 3 millimeters (⅛ inch) thick. Cut this lengthways down the middle to give you two long rectangles. Place a layer of the filling mixture down the middle of each rectangle and brush one edge of each piece with beaten egg. Pull over the other side of pastry to encase the sausage, pressing to seal. Slice each rectangle into 6 sausage rolls (or 4 if you want bigger ones) and place them on the baking sheet. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm up.
- Brush the rolls with egg wash and sprinkle on the seeds. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and the bottoms are cooked. Cool a little before eating.
Technique
Place your sausage in the center of your puff pastry.
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Gently pull the edges of the puff pastry so that it more than covers half the sausage.
Place egg wash on the leftover puff pastry section and roll it over to close. Press down to seal.
Brush the entire roll with egg wash before cutting so that you don't seal the sides of each roll to allow for the dough to expand.
Because some sausage may have more fat than others, I like to cut the tops of the sausage rolls so that the excess fat can escape. I also place the rolls on a rack with holes so that the sausage rolls are not baking in the fat...just a little healthier!
Serving Suggestions
Puff Pastry Sausage Rolls - Flaky, golden puff pastry hugging savory pork sausage delivers a quick and easy crowd-pleaser. Serve them as a snack, appetizer, or even breakfast. And they’re a year-round specialty because you know what the next big thing is after the holidays? Football is huge here in the US. You can imagine the noise here at home during game days with my son and hubby as they cheer for their favorite team. Yep, but it’s all about the food for me. One of our favorite appetizers is homemade sausage rolls.
Bake - Brush sausage rolls with the remaining egg wash. Bake in a preheated 400℉ (205℃) oven for about 30 minutes until the pastry puffs and the meat cooks through. Remove and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. Pair with ketchup if desired.
Honey mustard dressing, BBQ sauce, remoulade, and peri peri sauce are good dipping sauces.
When award-winning Australian cookbook author and friend Jane Lawson brought out her Milkbar Memories cookbook last year I went straight to the sausage roll recipe.
Tips
I use puff pastry for this recipe. See my Puff pastry to the rescue post.
The sheets of puff pastry are usually 8" (20 cm) in width. I cut it in half to make 2 long rolls.
Breakfast sausage is my usual choice, but you can use your favorite bulk sausage.
Assemble sausage rolls the day before and refrigerate them in an airtight container in single layers with parchment paper between them.
Place the puff pastry sausage rolls on a baking sheet in a single layer to freeze. When solid, remove and place in freezer ziplock bags; they’ll stay good for a month or two. You could also bake and freeze or refrigerate them for a day or two.
This recipe will make 12 rolls. These are great to freeze and just pop them into the oven when needed. To freeze the rolls, it is easier to place the long roll onto plastic wrap on a baking tray, brush egg wash onto the roll, cut and snip. Place the tray into the freezer until the roll is frozen.
The rest of the batch can be refrigerated and simply reheated up to temperature.
Storing:
These sausage rolls make delicious leftovers. I refrigerate the leftover sausage rolls and heat them at 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes.
For a bite-sized treat, try my British-style Sausage Roll Bites.
I hope you liked this Easy Peasy British Sausage Rolls recipe as much as I did. If so, please consider rating it and leaving a comment. Thank you so much for visiting Pudge Factor.
Do you have a favourite sausage roll recipe? I made these sausage rolls with bread dough.
Start kneading until the dough comes together. Add more water if required. Just little bit at a time. Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. Whilst the dough is rising, semi bake / fry your sausages. The cooking process will continue with the baking of your rolls.
Knock the dough lightly down. Flour your work surface and roll out the dough fairly thinly. Place a piece of partly cooked sausage onto the edge of one small square and roll dough around it. Continue with the rest of the dough and sausages. Transfer onto baking sheets.
Jamie's Quick & Easy Sausage Roll Recipe
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