Christmas Food: Sausage Rolls Recipe

Growing up my Mom always used to make sausage rolls for Christmas so of course the festive period just doesn’t seem quite the same without sausage rolls to snack on. A few years ago I bought Delia’s Christmas recipe book which has many wonderful recipes. This past weekend (with the help of my hubby) I baked a batch of sausage rolls using her recipe. Besides for the pastry being a little difficult to work with, it is a simple recipe and the result is worth the delicious sausage rolls! Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

400g of ready-made all-butter puff pastry – I’m lazy so I prefer to take the easy route of using ready-made pastry 😉

For the filling
450g good-quality pork sausagemeat
1 medium onion, grated
4 tablespoons chopped sage leaves
1 egg, beaten, to glaze

Method

Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

Leave the pastry to rest at room temperature before using. This makes it easier to work with.

When you’re ready to make the sausage rolls, start by grating the onion and chopping the fresh sage leaves.

Mix the sausagemeat, onion and sage together in a mixing bowl.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to form an oblong approximately 42 x 30cm. Make sure you’ve put enough flour on the board as the pastry can get sticky. Cut this oblong into three strips 42 x 10cm and divide the sausagemeat also into three, making three long rolls the same length as the strips of pastry (if it’s sticky sprinkle on some flour and flour your hands).

Place one roll of sausagemeat on to one strip of pastry. Brush the beaten egg along one edge, then fold the pastry over and seal it as carefully as possible.

Carefull lift the whole thing up bit by bit and turn it so the sealed edge is underneath. Repeat all this with the other portions of meat and pastry.

Press lightly, and cut into individual rolls each about 5cm long. Snip three V shapes in the top of each roll with the end of some scissors and brush with beaten egg.

Place the rolls on baking sheets and bake high in the oven for 20–25 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to cool.

You can store the cooked and cooled sausage rolls in an airtight tin, but they do lose their crunchiness. For this reason it is preferable to freeze them in polythene boxes and remove a few at a time as and when you need them. Defrost them for an hour at room temperature and then warm them in a hot oven for 5 minutes.

Do you have any favourite Christmas snacks that you like to make at this time of year? I’d love to hear in the comments below.