Homemade sausage rolls

 

Just in time for New Years Eve! Needing some little nibblies for your party? You can’t go past these little morsels of goodness – they’re the perfect size to eat with one hand while holding your champagne in the other.

Who loves sausage rolls? I absolutely adore a really good sausage roll with tomato sauce! Do you eat yours with tomato sauce or Tabasco, like my husband does? Tomato sauce with sausage rolls and pies is a very Aussie thing to do – they go hand in hand and will always be my choice of condiment. I just can’t get enough sauce! (I do like some pie or sausage roll with my sauce! ;))

But trying to find a good sausage roll at a bakery, cafe or even at the supermarket (even though I never buy them from the supermarket) is very difficult! They either don’t have any taste, they have peas in them (yuk!), the onion is raw or they’re way too dry (too much breadcrumbs!) I can’t win – seriously! I usually judge a good sausage roll on my 3 year old nephew’s face – if he turns his nose up and pulls a face at a sausage roll, you know it’s no good!

I’m a simple girl with simple pleasures who enjoys good tasting food. That’s why I’ll share with you the simplest, tastiest, moistest sausage rolls you’ll ever try. Everyone who tries my sausage rolls, scores them 8 or 9 out of 10 (eights and nines are pretty good I think) and asks for the recipe – even my last chef at school thought they were tasty, and he was hard to please!

I have been making these sausage rolls for a good year now, always experimenting with different flavours and ingredients, but always coming back to my tried & true blue original (the one I’m sharing with you right now). My brother-in-law inspired me to create a good sausage roll, as he was the sausage roll master, but I couldn’t wait until he made them again before I got my fix!

These sausage rolls are perfect too for the little ones too, the fussy eaters, as you can pack them full of veggies, that they don’t even know they’re eating! And they always ask for more – the little kids and the big kids!

TIP 1: I make my sausage roll filling the day before, for all the flavours to infuse together. This is not necessary – I do this when I make dumplings, it’s a hard habit to break.

TIP 2: Freeze the sausage rolls before cooking them in the oven. I’ve cooked them straight away and found they broke and split and the pastry was soggy! Don’t ask me why. When I freeze them for an hour or two and then cook them, they hold their shape & the pastry is super flaky!

TIP 3: These freeze fantastic – up to three months I’ve had them in the freezer (by mistake!) We thought we’d eaten them all, but they were hiding at the back of the freezer!

TIP 4: I use my old fashioned grater to grate the vegetables. Feel free to use your food processor – anything to save time!

 

PREP: 5 minutes grating vegetables + 30 minutes making sausage rolls + 1 hour freezing time
COOK: 15 minutes vegetables + 10 minutes cooling vegetables + 15-20 minutes baking
MAKES: 80 mini / 40 party / 20 large / 10 extra large

INGREDIENTS:
VEGETABLE MIXTURE:

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 brown onion, peeled and grated
2 medium carrots, grated
1 large zucchini, grated
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons butter
Sea salt to taste

SAUSAGE MIXTURE:

500grams beef mince, room temperature
6-7 BBQ beef sausages (or 500 grams beef sausage mince), room temperature
Sea salt to taste
1 teaspoons ground white pepper
Cooled vegetable mixture

OTHER:
5 puff pastry sheets, thawed / defrosted (not pictured)
Black and white sesame seeds (optional)

METHOD:

Heat the oil in a large frypan, on medium-high heat, frying the onion for 4 minutes, continually stirring so it doesn’t burn. Add the carrot, frying for an extra minute before adding the zucchini and thyme. Stirring frequently, fry for 5 minutes until softened then add the butter. Fry for a further 3 minutes and remove from heat. Allow to cool completely before adding into the sausage mixture.

Once vegetable mixture is cooled, combine the beef and sausage minces together with the vegetable mixture in a large bowl.

Using your hands (you may want to wear gloves) mix really well until all ingredients come together, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside for at least half an hour before making your sausage rolls.

Cut each square of puff pastry in half. Place one half of pastry in front of you while you work. Spoon and smooth enough sausage mixture into the middle of each pastry half, lengthways, to take up one third of the pastry sheet.

Fold the pastry over, to join the edges together and seal with a fork. Cut pastry, with a sharp knife, in half (for large sized sausage rolls), or each half into half again (party sized sausage rolls), OR each of those halves into half again (mini sausage rolls). Repeat process until all sausage roll mixture has been used.

Place your sausage rolls on a flat surface while you freeze them. If using sesame seeds, wet a pastry brush & gently brush the sausage rolls, then sprinkle the sesame seeds over the sausage rolls.

Heat oven to 200°C / 220°C. Remove your sausage rolls from the freezer after one hour, baking for 15-20 minutes until golden.

If freezing your extra sausage rolls, place them in a zip lock bag once frozen, and keep them in the freezer until needed.

 

Fabulous Foodie Fridays #33 happens every weekend @Bake Play Smile, from Friday, to share all your recipes. A big thank you to Lucy who hosts such amazing food inspiration.

I love joining food parties. Heidi at The McCallums Shamrock Patch with Pure Blog Love #15 and Ronda & Dina @Kitchen Dreaming with The Weekend Social Vol 2 Week 1. Thank you lovely ladies for a wonderful party – love the inspiration I find there. Why don’t you come join us? Great way to meet new friends.