Homemade Sausage Rolls

5 from 10 votes

You'd never guess these luxury sausage rolls are made with such simple ingredients! Easy to make and perfect to plait, homemade sausage rolls don't come more delicious than these!

Prep Time15

Cook Time40

Total Time55

Course: Appetizer, Finger Food

Cuisine: Western

Servings: large sausage rolls

Author: Chris Collins

Cost: £2.50 / $3

Equipment

Large Greaseproof Baking Tray
Frying Pan & Wooden Spoon
Large Mixing Bowl
Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
Pot & Brush (for egg wash)

Ingredients

1.5 sheets Pre-rolled Puff Pastry (see notes)
1lb / 500g Ground Pork, non-lean (see notes)
3.5oz / 100g Streaky Bacon, finely diced
1/2 cup / 35g Panko Breadcrumbs
1 medium Carrot, very finely diced
1 small/medium White Onion, very finely diced
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tbsp Fresh Sage, finely diced (can sub 1 tsp dried sage)
1 tsp Whole Fennel Seeds, crushed (see notes)
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
3/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp White Pepper
2 Eggs (1 beaten for egg wash, 1 for meat mixture)
Sesame seeds, to garnish

Instructions

In a pan over low-medium heat add the bacon and fry until crisp with the fat rendered. Add in carrot & onion and continue frying until soft & golden, then add in the garlic and fry for 1-2mins longer. Remove from pan, place in a large mixing bowl and leave to cool for 5-10mins.
In the same bowl add pork, fennel, sage, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, breadcrumbs, 1 egg and gently combine. Make sure you don't over work the meat or the sausage rolls will come out tough and dry. Only mix until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Split the first sheet of pastry into 3 even rectangles. Take a slice out of the second sheet at the same size, so you're left with 4 even-sized rectangles. Evenly distribute your sausage meat into 4 log shapes in the centre of each. At a 45-degree angle, slice equal strips around 0.5" wide, ensuring you slice an even number on both sides. Starting from the bottom, braid the strips by pulling each one right over the meat to cover it and nearly touch the other side. You can either leave the sausage roll giant, or gently slice into mini sauce rolls (5 per giant sausage roll).
Place on a lightly oiled baking tray, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 180C/356F for 30mins or until a deep golden colour and piping hot through the centre.

Video

Notes

a) Puff Pastry - The size of 1 slice of pastry I use is 14"x9" (35.5cmx22cm). The weight of each pastry sheet (before dividing) is 320g/11.3oz, so if you are buying puff pastry that is not pre-rolled (i.e a slab of pastry) make sure you are using that much weight and roll out to the dimensions above. Just to confirm, it's 1 and a half sheets of that size/weight you'll need.

b) Non-lean pork - Try and get a pack of pork at least 15% fat, with 20-25% being optimum. Stores should sell up to 20%, anything above it's a butcher's job!

c) Mini vs Giant - If you're going for mini sausage rolls, then cut them before they go in the oven. In doing this you might find it easier to slice after a stint in the fridge to firm up the pastry. Either way just slice gently so you don't squash the shape.

d) Classic Sausage Rolls vs Sausage Plait - If you don't feel like being as extra as me and plaiting the pastry, simply roll the pastry. Try and leave a small overlap and fasten it with egg wash. Cook seam side down to prevent them from unfolding.

e) Breadcrumbs - Panko works great because they're very big and light, so lock in a good amount of moisture (i.e. juicer sausage rolls). If you're using regular fine dry breadcrumbs, 35g is more like 1/3 cup.

f) White Pepper sub - I use white pepper as it adds a nice little bit of heat. You can sub 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper or just use 1/4 tsp black pepper.

g) Crushing Fennel Seeds - You can do this with a pestle and mortar or smash them in a zip-locked bag. Failing that just drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil over them on a chopping board and dice with a knife. The olive oil will stop them from bouncing over the kitchen.

h) Calories - based per sausage roll (20 in total)

Nutrition