Very simple Sausage Rolls

SAUSAGE ROLLS.

It would have been Mum's 90th birthday on Tuesday, so I felt in the mood to do some cooking to celebrate her memory. Mum used to make sausage rolls making her own mince of course.  However this is not her recipe.  When I find her recipe, I will add it to the collection.  

There are many recipes for sausage rolls on the internet, but as I had not made sausage rolls before, I was looking for a very simple recipe. 

SAUSAGE ROLLS

Ingredients

500g Sausage mince
1 ½  tablespoons of finely chopped parsley or  1 finely chopped small onion
1 teaspoon salt
½  teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon of Worchester sauce or 1 dessertspoon of sweet chilli sauce.
1 egg (beaten)

3 sheets of puff pastry

Milk for glazing. ( about 1/4 cup)

Method

Prep: 20 minutes. Cook for 20 minutes fan-forced. (30 min not fan forced)

1.      Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius fan forced *

2.      Lightly grease baking or biscuits trays.

3.      Mix mince, parsley (or onion), salt and  black pepper in a large bowl.

4.      Beat egg and add to mince mixture. Do not mix yet.

5.      Add in Worchester sauce to mince mixture and combine well.    If you are using Sweet chilli sauce instead of Worchester sauce, only use 1 dessertspoon not a tablespoon as the mixture will be too wet.

6.      Cut each pastry sheet into 3 equal sized pieces lengthwise.

7.      Make a roll of the mince lengthways on the centre of each piece.   Do not use too much mixture as you will find it difficult for the pastry to meet.

8.      Using a Pastry brush, brush the edges of the pastry on each side on the mince strip with milk

9.      Roll each strip firmly making sure that the mixture is tucked in with the first rolling of the pastry then firmly roll the second side so that the pastry meets.

10.  Brush the top with milk.

11.  Trim edges if required and then cut each long roll into small or average size sausage rolls depending on what you prefer.

12.  Place on the greased oven trays.  Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on 200 degrees fan forced oven.  *If you do not have a fan forced oven, bake them for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

I adapted this recipe as I was going along. I used one small onion finely chopped instead of parsley and Sweet Chilli Sauce instead of Worchester Sauce.  I actually used a tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce, but for future occasions, I will only use 1 dessertspoon as the mixture, I think was too wet making it difficult to roll into sausage shapes.

I also discovered that it is best to make sure that the mixture is tucked in under the pastry as you roll the first side of the pastry. Too much mixture means it is hard to roll and for the pastry to meet together. Some recipes also suggest cutting the pastry into 4 equal sized pieces lengthways.

Despite the wet mixture and the fiddling around with the pastry, the sausage rolls went into the oven. The first batch were slightly burnt ( baked for 30 min on 200 fan forced) but the second and third tray came out of the oven beautifully. I adjusted the timing to 20 minutes fan forced on 200 degrees celcius.  The mixture made 40 small to average sized sausage rolls.

I waited for them to cool and then froze them thinking  that I would have them for a future event, but alas, they tasted so good even without tomato sauce (ketchup) on a cold day that they are now all gone in just 2 days.

If you are short of ingredients, you could adapt this recipe further by leaving out the parsley or onion. You would need some type of sauce I think as otherwise  the mixture would be too dry but you could try it and see what you think.  If it works without the sauce, then please let me know.

SAUSAGE ROLL UPDATE 21/7/14
I just made these sausage rolls again and thought I would update you on  my variation of today.

I added 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of parsley as well as a small carrot grated.
I only used 1 desertspoon of Sweet Chilli sauce.
I also added a 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs.

I have now put the sausage rolls in the oven with 36 sausage rolls made and mixture left over.  I have to wait until they come out of the oven before going up the street to get some more pastry.  Making them with these ingredients obviously goes further so you need more than 3 pastry sheets. Using only one desertspoon of sweet chilli sauce meant that the mixture was not as wet as the above recipe, meaning that it was easier to handle.

I also found that if you take a teaspoon of mixture and roll it into a little sausage and lay it finger width in the pastry means that it is easier for the pastry to fold appropriately. Obviously, you dont want to be mean with the mixture, but making the pastry meet without mixture oosing is very important.