Last week we were craving sausage rolls. I don't believe that I had ever tasted a sausage roll prior to coming here to the UK.
My mother used to make weiner rolls when I was growing up. They were something we all loved as a family.
Mom made beautiful plain pastry. It wasn't puff pastry, just plain. All of her pies, etc. were beautiful and we loved them.
When she made weiner rolls she would make her regular pastry recipe and then roll it out. The rolled pastry would be cut into rectangles large enough to wrap around weiners, enclosing them completely.
I was surprised when I moved over here and saw sausage rolls. If you went down to the shops around school getting out time, there would be tons of children at the bake shop buying sausage rolls. You could also buy frozen ones to bake at home.
You can even get Vegetarian ones. Both are wrapped in flaky puffed pastry. Of course you get what you pay for.
The more expensive ones will have a lovely rich and ample meaty filling. Using a quality sausage meat. The cheap ones will be mostly pastry and filled with nasty sausage meat. People seem to enjoy both.
The first time I tasted a homemade one was at my friend Joy's in South Wales. They were magnificent. It truly was love at first bite.
You can find her recipe here. She was really generous and shared it with me. I think she also sent us home with a bag filled with them that visit along with her gorgeous lamb samosas!
This recipe for Apple & Sage Sausage Rolls was one I had clipped from the BBC Good Food Magazine back in 2012. I had saved it in my recipe files to bake one day.
I discovered it while going through them the other day and thought that there would be no time like the present to make them. I had puff pastry and sausage meat in the freezer that I needed to use up.
The directions were a bit ambiguous. I have tried to make them as straight forward as I can, as well as adding my usual North American measurements.
Try to use the best sausage meat that you can afford. I actually did a tutorial on making your own sausages here.
I know you won't be able to get British Sausages in North America. You can however make some tasty sausage meat yourself. I highly recommend it. They are really delicious.
You only need the meat to make the filling for these sausage rolls. It is mixed with chopped fresh sage and apple. I peeled the apple.
I used French all-butter puff pastry that I had in the freezer. If you can find all-butter puff pastry, I really recommend it.
I always think it is best to use natural ingredients whenever you can. I don't like things with artificial ingredients and preservatives. Go as pure as you can.
In any case these turned out really lovely. I sent half of them to my next door neighbor for her and her son to enjoy. She was most appreciative.
The sage and the apple give them a really nice flavor. Sage and apple are perfect partners for pork. I think you are really going to enjoy these!
Apple & Sage Sausage Rolls
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Ingredients
- 400g (16 ounces) of sausage meat (from about 6 meaty sausages)
- 1 clove of garlic crushed
- 2 TBS chopped sage
- 1 apple, peeled and chopped
- 1 pound (500g) all butter puff pastry
- 1 free range egg beaten together wih 1 tsp water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Line several baking trays with baking paper.
- Remove the sausage meat from the skins and crumble into a bowl. Add the chopped sage, garlic and chopped apple. Mix well together.
- Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to a large rectangle. 12 inches wide at the shortest edge. Halve the pastry to make two long thin sheets. Divide the sausage meat down the center of each, leaving a good border on both sides.
- Beat the egg together with the water. Brush some of this down both long edges of each pastry strip. Fold over the edges to cover the sausage meat, making two long rolls. Seal the edges with a fork.
- Flip over and place pastry seam side down on the baking sheets. Brush more egg wash over top. Cut each roll into six equal pieces. Snip each in a few places and spread them apart on the baking sheets to leave room to rise.
- Cook for 25 minutes until golden brown and puffed.
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One thing I will miss about the UK are the lovely sausages they have over here. There are about as many varieties of sausage as there are areas and counties.
Nevermind, they have good ones in Canada as well! There will always be things we miss about the places we have lived.
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