The perfect finger food, these are absolutely bursting with flavour and delicious eaten warm, straight out the oven, or cold for a picnic or lunchbox snack. All butter flakey pastry filled with juicy pork, sage, onion, bacon, garlic and a touch of wholegrain mustard for a subtle kick. Serve with a tomato sauce (I love Stokes bloody mary one, regular ketchup or my very favourite chilli and tomato relish).
Total time to make : 30 minutes Time to prep : 10 minutes
Time to bake : 20 minutes
Servings : 24
Ingredients
2 x sheets all butter ready rolled puff pastry (I used 2 x 215g)*
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 onion, finely diced
200g streaky bacon (about 12 rashers), finely chopped
450g minced pork or sausage meat
60g panko breadcrumbs (or regular)
1 egg
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 tbsp sage, finely chopped (about 16 leaves)
1/2 tsp salt
Black pepper
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
Nigella seeds*
Sage leaves (optional)
Method
De-frost the puff pastry sheets overnight in the fridge (preferred) - or at room temperature for about an hour - don't unroll them until you're ready to assemble the sausage rolls
In a large non stick frying pan, heat the oil over a medium heat and add in the garlic, onion and a pinch of salt. Sauté until the onions are soft and translucent, we're not looking to brown them off. Add in the bacon and stir through until cooked, again we're not looking for crispy bacon bits here, just cooked through. Remove from the heat and leave to cool down
In a large bowl, mix all of the other filling ingredients together. Use clean hands to make sure everything is well mixed through and then add in the cooked garlic, onion and bacon mix, wiping the frying pan clean (we'll use this again in a little bit). Mix through with clean hands or using food safe gloves
Heat the wiped frying pan over a medium-high heat and pinch a small ball of mixture off, fry off for a few minutes until cooked. Taste for seasoning. I usually find it needs a little more salt and cracks of black pepper at this stage. Adjust recipe if necessary and try again until happy
Prepare your egg wash by beating 1 egg in a seperate bowl. Unroll your pastry sheets - keeping them on the greaseproof paper - and use a sharp knife to cut each in half, lengthways (so you end up with 4 long strips in total)
Use hands to scoop out the mixture and lay it in the centre of each strip. Egg wash one long side of each pastry strip and then fold over the other side. Fold over the egg side if they don't meet and use hands to gently squeeze and encompass the sausage, the egg wash should help the pastry stick together like a licked envelope, use fingers to pinch together at the seal. We want to try and get the meat packed in tightly. Repeat this until all 4 strips have been done. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes* , saving the remaining egg wash for later
When you're ready to bake them, preheat a fan oven to 180C and remove the sausage rolls from the fridge. Use your hands to firmly squeeze along the sausage rolls so that they're nice and tight (see notes below). Flip them over - seal side down - and use the remaining egg wash to brush all over. Top with nigella seeds and sage leaves if using and use a sharp knife to slice into ~1.5" pieces
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until golden. Serve with fresh watercress salad and tomato dipping sauce
Nutritional Information
(per sausage roll)
76 calories
5g fat, 6g carbs, 7g protein
Good to know:
If you can, use all butter puff pastry as it's more flavoursome
Ready-rolled pastry sheets come in different sizes depending on what brand they are but use/bake them the same way and for the same time, it just might mean you end up with spare pastry or bigger/smaller sausage rolls
You don't have to refrigerate them but even a quick 10 minute flash freeze helps to firm up the dough for easier slicing and so you can squeeze the pastry gently round the meat - this stops the filling being loose and falling out or undefiled sausage rolls (is there anything worse?!)
Use poppy, nigella, sesame seeds to top
Can be kept for up to 3 days at the refrigeration stage in an airtight container, or frozen at this stage for up to 3 months. Add 10 minutes baking time if baking from frozen and egg wash/add seeds beforehand as usual