How to make Homemade Sausage Rolls
Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 11:29PM This is for Colin. And for Dave. And for anyone who thinks putting these bad boys in their mouth is a good idea. Here's how you make homemade sausage rolls with minimum effort and maximum effect.
+ Buy Dafour Puff Pastry in any supermarket freezer section. Thaw 1 hour in the fridge (as per instructions), flour a surface and a rolling pin, roll out to approximate rectangle. Slice length ways with a sharp knife into three long rectangles.
+ Release 6-8 sausage from their casing. Buy really good sausages, or loose sausage meat, in the flavour of your choice. I love the Sweet Italian variety because they go with my sweet Italian nature. Ok that's rubbish, I just like them cause they're so New York and we don't have them in Europe. I wish I was Italian.
+ Lay the sausage meat in a fat line along the pastry. Brush the inside of the rectangle with beaten egg. Fold over the pastry to meet the other egged side to form a tunnel, seal by gently pinching the two sides together neatly. Brush the top of the tunnel with egg and sprinkle with fennel seeds (optional).
+ Using a long flat spatular and care, transfer the 'rolls' onto a baking tray. Make sure you have a baking tray long enough - or indeed that you only roll out your pastry to the length of your tray! Align the rolls next to each other in parallel, not too close.
+ Bake on a high temperature (390F/200C) for approximately 30-35 minutes. I cover them loosely with foil but take care to make sure the foil is not touching the egg/pastry or it will stick. Approximately 10-12 minutes before the end I take off the foil to allow the pastry to get it's lovely colour. This is all approximate because I made this recipe up, but as long as the sausages are cooked through (test the middle part of the middle roll to see if it's cooked), you're good to go!
+ Take out of the oven. Allow to rest before transferring to a board to slice. You want them to still be warm when you slice them otherwise the pasty is too crumbly, but you can't move them to the board until they've stood for a few minutes to firm up. Serve in bit size pieces with healthy servings of ketchup and dijon for dipping. Bada bing!
