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JohnT’s Sausage Rolls

Source of Recipe

JohnT at eGullet.org


Recipe Introduction

I’ve always made sausage rolls the way that Ted made them. Which was to take cooked breakfast links and wrap them in puff pastry. Before baking I’d brush them with an egg wash and bake. They were good. But the sausage was always a little tough, even if I undercooked them prior to wrapping them in the pastry. But every recipe I’ve seen as an adult calls for rolling up raw sausage inside the pastry. So I took my questions to eGullet. Basically I wondered if, when done with raw sausage, does the sausage get fully cooked in the center? Especially in a large sausage roll that is going to be sliced rather than served whole like the little ones. Also, isn’t there a lot of grease coming out of the raw sausage as it cooks? I got good answers and a couple of recipes, including this one. According to everyone, the sausage does cook through and the bread that is included in the sausage mixture mitigates the greasiness. Well, these were delicious. I made the for Christmas breakfast 2017 and everyone agreed that they were better than the old ones. I’ve included John’s full ingredients, but I did make some changes. Since these were breakfast rolls, I deleted the carrots and garlic and used only sage and parsley. I also didn’t bother with poppy seeds. The sausage mixture is best if refrigerated overnight. Also, I made these ahead of time – I assembled the rolls, froze for an hour, sliced into 1-inch pieces, froze them again for an hour and then put the little rolls in plastic bags for freezer storage. To serve, I thawed them for about 45 minutes, brushed with an egg wash and baked. I halved this recipe and ended up with probably 35 little sausage rolls – it depends on how thick you’ve done the sausage layer. ***NOTE*** - You may need more than the stated amount of puff pastry. I made a half recipe this year (2021) and needed about 2/3 of an 18 oz. package of pastry.

List of Ingredients

1kg (2 lb.) good quality sausages (casings removed) or sausage mince
1 large or two small onions
2 large carrots
2 tablespoons mixed fresh herbs like oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage, parsley (or a good pinch of dried herbs)
1 teaspoon garlic, paste
3 slices of white bread
18 oz. pkg. puff pastry, thawed ***SEE NOTE ABOVE***
1/4 cup poppy seeds (optional)
1 egg (for egg wash)



Recipe

Finely chop the onions, fresh herbs and garlic. Grate the carrots. Add to the sausage meat. In a food processor, break up the bread into crumbs. Add to the sausage and mix well.

Heat the oven to 400F. You want to work with very cold pastry, so get the rolls of sausage meat ready first. Roll out the sausage meat into 1-inch sausage, as long as your pastry is wide. You will end up with a few of these. Unroll or unfold the puff pastry and place the sausage at one end. Roll it up as far as you need to in order to cover the sausage. Cut excess off with a sharp knife and seal. Use the remaining sausage and puff pastry to make the rest.

At this point, you can follow my directions above if you are making them ahead of time or you can cook them right away. If you want to make them right away, simply brush with the egg wash, sprinkle with the poppy seeds (if using) and slice into smaller pieces. I think a trip to the freezer before slicing would be a good idea. Bake until the pastry is puffed and golden and the sausage is cooked through – it could be anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes depending on how thick your sausage layer is.