Sausage Rolls

Ahhh….Sausage Rolls. Oh how I’ve missed you! I was able to have a good old Sausage Roll practically anytime I wanted while living in Ireland. They are sold in many bakeries and convenience stores there. However, they are quite scarce here in Virginia. So I was completely over the moon when I came across this recipe for Sausage Rolls. These rolls are fundamentally the same as the Irish Sausage Rolls,  it is sausage meat rolled up in a puff pastry. I mean really, how can you go wrong? However, Irish Sausage is quite different from the sausages you find here in the States. In Ireland, the meat is pork, however, the texture is completely different, it is ground really finely and usually has some finely ground bread added in as well. I also didn’t feel it was as spicy as the sausage found here. I suppose if you really wanted to be authentic, you could search for some Irish Sausages from an Import store. However if you’d like to just get the gist of what they’re like, give these a try. In my Sausage Rolls, I used “hot” breakfast sausage, so they are spicy indeed. This recipe also has you throw in some ground or mince beef, garlic, BBQ and Worcestershire sauce. What you have here is an Irish Sausage Roll, but kicked-up a few notches in the spice department. They are ridiculously yummy! You can eat them hot, cold or room temperature or for breakfast, lunch, a snack or dinner. Cut up in smaller pieces, they would make fantastic little appetizers. I froze quite a few of these little devils when I made this batch and am quite happy with how they do with freezing. Make a batch and your family will be over the moon as well!

Sausage Rolls

recipe from: Manus menu

yield: 18 sausage rolls

Ingredients:

• 15.75 oz. – 450 grams – ground (mince) beef
• 14 oz. – 400 grams – pork sausage, skin removed – I used “hot” breakfast sausage
• 1 big onion, grated
• 2 eggs
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 Tablespoon BBQ sauce
• 3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup Panko (or bread crumbs)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 sheets puff pastry, thawed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450° F ( 230° C)

Put the ground beef, sausage, grated onion, garlic, sauces, Panko, salt and pepper and 1 of the eggs in a big bowl.  Mix well with your hands.  The consistency should be the same as that of meatballs.

Cut each thawed pastry sheet in half . Take a handful of meat, make a sausage as long as the long side of the half pastry sheet and place it towards one of the edges.  Brush the edges with some beaten egg.  Roll up the sausage roll leaving the ends open. Cut the roll into 3 equal parts.  Score the tops diagonally with a sharp knife and brush them with the remaining beaten egg .

Bake in a preheated oven for the first 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350ºF  (180° C) and cook for another 20 minutes.

These sausage rolls can be frozen, thawed and reheated as needed.

Enjoy!