Homemade Sausage Rolls with Flaky Pastry

Why Homemade Sausage Rolls Beat Anything from the Chiller Aisle

There is a particular kind of disappointment that comes from a supermarket sausage roll: pale, limp pastry, a filling that tastes mostly of rusk and salt, and that faintly sad squidge when you bite through it. A homemade sausage roll is a different creature altogether. The pastry shatters, the pork tastes properly of pork, and the herbs come through in clean, savoury waves. Better still, you control exactly what goes in — no fillers, no mystery seasoning, just good meat and plenty of butter.

The real secret is that they are genuinely easy. There is no proving, no kneading, no waiting for dough to rise. Once you have made a batch, you will keep a tray in the freezer and wonder why you ever paid for the pale imitations.

Start with the Right Pastry

For a golden, flaky result, all-butter puff pastry is the one to buy. The blocks are usually sold at 320g, which is exactly the right amount for roughly 500g of filling. Ready-rolled sheets are convenient, but they tend to be thinner and roll out a little unevenly, so a block you can roll yourself gives you better control over thickness.

A few rules that matter more than any ingredient:

• Keep the pastry cold. Take it out of the fridge only when you are ready to roll, and put it back the moment it starts to soften.
• Work on a lightly floured surface and roll in one direction at a time, lifting the pastry rather than dragging it.
• Aim for a rectangle about 30cm by 25cm and roughly 3mm thick. Too thin and it tears; too thick and the pastry will not cook through before the base burns.
• If you are feeling ambitious, rough puff pastry made with cold diced butter worked into strong white flour and iced water is superb — but shop-bought all-butter puff is a perfectly respectable shortcut.

The Filling: Pork, Herbs and Proper Seasoning

Ask your butcher to mince pork shoulder with a little belly included, or buy 500g of good pork mince with a fat content of around 15 to 20 per cent. Lean mince makes a dry, crumbly roll. Fat is flavour, and it keeps the filling juicy as it bakes.

Into the bowl with the pork goes:

• 1 small onion, grated on the coarse side of a box grater, then squeezed in a clean tea towel to remove excess water
• 50g fresh white breadcrumbs — they lighten the texture and stop the filling becoming dense
• 1 teaspoon English mustard
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried sage, or 6 fresh sage leaves finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme, or a few sprigs of fresh, leaves picked
• 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt and a generous grind of black pepper

Mix with your hands until the mixture is sticky and evenly combined — a good two minutes. Then, and this is the step most people skip, fry a teaspoon of the mixture in a dry pan and taste it. Adjust the salt, pepper and herbs while the meat is still raw and seasonable. You cannot fix a bland filling once the rolls are baked.

Cover the bowl and rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes so the herbs and seasoning settle into the meat.

Shaping, Rolling and the All-Important Chill

Cut your pastry rectangle in half lengthways so you have two long strips. Divide the filling in two and shape each portion into a neat log down the centre of a strip, leaving a clear border on both sides. Do not be tempted to overfill; a fat log splits the pastry as it rises.

Brush one long edge with beaten egg, fold the pastry over the filling, and press the seam firmly with your fingers. Crimp along the edge with the back of a fork, then turn the roll seam-side down. Cut each strip into six rolls for generous teatime portions, or eight for daintier ones.

Slash the top of each roll two or three times with a sharp knife — this lets steam escape and stops the pastry splitting. Brush all over with beaten egg and scatter with sesame seeds, poppy seeds or a pinch of fennel seed.

Now chill the tray for 20 minutes. This single step is what gives you that proper flaky lift, because the butter in the pastry must be cold when it hits the oven.

Baking for a Deep Golden Finish

Heat your oven to 200°C fan, 220°C conventional, or gas mark 7, and line a baking tray with baking parchment. A heavy, light-coloured tray works best; a very dark one will colour the bases too quickly.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, turning the tray halfway through, until the pastry is risen, crisp and a deep golden brown. Lift one roll and check the underside — if it is still pale and soft, give it another three or four minutes. Then rest them on the tray for five minutes before eating, however difficult that proves.

Serving, Storing and Freezing

Sausage rolls belong on a teatime plate alongside piccalilli, a pot of English mustard, tomato chutney or a slick of brown sauce. Served warm with a napkin in hand is the classic, but they are equally good at room temperature on a plate of cold cuts.

• Fridge: cooked rolls keep for three days in an airtight container. Refresh them in a 180°C oven for eight minutes rather than a microwave, which will ruin the pastry.
• Freezer, uncooked: freeze on a tray until solid, then bag them. Bake from frozen at 200°C fan for 30 to 35 minutes, adding five minutes to the usual time. Glaze them before freezing so they are ready to go straight in.
• Freezer, cooked: reheat from frozen at 180°C for 15 minutes until piping hot.

Make a double batch. The second tray disappears faster than the first.