sausage rolls recipe

If you have never tried a sausage roll, then you can't really understand my excitement when I found this awesome post on design sponge today... if you've never tasted the flaky pastry dipped in tomato sauce and the warm gooey meat filling ooze out as you bite into one of these, then you really don't know what you're missing!

sausage rolls are a staple in the australian diet, along with meat pies you can buy them almost anywhere you go, and they make the perfect meal (if you ask me)

so here's the recipe from Cerentha Harris that I am going to try and report back on :)

Sausage Rolls

For the Pastry

• 2.5 cups of plain flour (all-purpose flour, 310g)
• 1 teaspoon salt (5g)
• 1 cup very cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes (2 sticks or 230g)
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup ice water (65ml-125ml)

[If you don’t feel like making the pastry, you can buy puff pastry.]

Whizz flour and salt in the food processor. Add the cubes of butter. Pulse it until all the butter is worked in and it looks like soft sandy crumbs.

Slowly add the ice water down the chute, careful to make sure you stop when the dough just comes together. Don’t over mix the dough at this point. You want to combine it until the dough forms big fist size lumps. You may not need all of the water. Dump it out onto a counter and combine it quickly and lightly into a ball (don’t knead it). Cut in half and cover in plastic wrap or put in a sealable bag and stick in the fridge for an hour.

For the filling

• 1 lb (450g) of your favorite sausage
• 1 lb (450g) ground pork (or any other ground meat of your choice, or you may also use all sausage)
• 2 tablespoons (30g) seasoned bread crumbs (I use Progresso ones!)
• You can also add fresh chopped herbs (sage is good!), spinach, even cheese
• 2 eggs beaten together with 2 tablespoons milk, to seal the edges of the roll and to brush along the top

Mix one pound of sausage meat with 1 pound of ground pork and shake in the breadcrumbs. Combine with your hands, or a potato masher. Add herbs and cheese if you are using them.

Remove one half of the dough from the fridge and let it warm up a little. On a slightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rough large rectangle – the dough should be 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick.

Form handfuls of the meat mixture into fat sausages by rolling it in your palms and lay them end to end along the center of the dough, leaving enough of a margin so that you can roll the dough around the meat. Trim the rectangle so the rough edges of the dough are neat down each long side.

Fold over the dough to form the roll – I do a bit of squashing here to make sure the meat is pushed right to the edges of the rolled dough. Brush the seam with egg before closing the roll. Cut into 2 inch (5cm) lengths and place them seam side down on a greased cookie tray, or a tray you have lined with parchment paper. Brush them with the egg wash.

You could sprinkle now with sesame seeds if you like.

Bake in a 400F (200C) oven for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with tomato sauce (ketchup).

and here for more details with pictures