Homemade freshly milled sausage rolls from scratch 👌

Now this is a recipe that you will need to make this week, so you understand just how good they are.

They’re flavourful, juicy and have the perfect crunchy pastry. I guarantee they will be the best sausage roll you’ve ever had. Yes, that’s a big statement, but after trying many sausage rolls from many bakeries in my life, I am pretty confident to make this claim. 

So there are two elements to make:

1. SAUSAGE - beef sausage filling. This is a flavourful and juicy filling - definitely not dry and dense like some can be. 

2. ROLL - a rough puff pastry. It’s easy to make, so don't get intimidated by how long the method is.  It's mostly repeating the same process, then allowing it time to cool and rest in the fridge. 

Rough Puff Pastry Recipe

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups white flour (about 180 g)
1 ½ cups our new bakers flour (about 180g)
1 ½ tablespoons raw sugar
1 teaspoon salt
340g cold, salted butter, cut into 1/4" cubes and chilled again until firm (3 sticks/ 1 1/2 cups)
9 tablespoons ice water
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Instructions:
Combine the flours, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor, pulsing once to combine. Add 1/4 of the butter chunks and pulse 4 times until the dough is in dime-sized pieces. Add the remaining butter and process 2 times just to coat the butter cubes with flour. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

Combine the ice water and lemon juice in a small bowl. Drizzle half of the liquid over the flour/butter mixture and toss with a rubber spatula until just combined. Add more liquid, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough clumps together when squeezed.

Turn the dough - which will be very shaggy - out onto your work surface. Massage the dough by dragging small portions of it across the counter under the heel of your hand. The motions should be quick and brisk so that the butter stays as cold as possible. This action creates many thin layers of dough and butter, and begins to bring the dough together.

Gather the dough up into a ball (a metal pastry scraper is helpful here), press it into a disc, wrap it in plastic and chill it for 1 hour.

Remove the chilled dough from the fridge, unwrap it, and place it on a lightly floured surface. Dust the dough lightly with flour, sweep off any excess with a pastry brush, and roll out the dough to a 15x10" rectangle. Fold the dough lengthwise into thirds, like folding a letter, then, starting from a short end, loosely roll up the dough into a spiral. 

If the dough is sticky or springy at this point, wrap it in plastic and chill it for 30 minutes.

Press down on the dough to form a small rectangle, and again roll it out into a 15x10" rectangle, and again roll it up into a spiral. Flatten it out a bit to make it easier to roll once it has chilled. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour.

Your puff pastry is now ready to be used. You can store it in the fridge for a day or two, or freeze it, double-wrapped, for many months.

Now let's make the meat filling!

Beef Sausage Filling

This is a flavourful and juicy filling - definitely not dry and dense like some can be. 

Ingredients:
1 red onion
a dash of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1kg beef mince
3tsp garlic powder
Handful fresh parsley (around 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or bakers flour)
1 tablespoon mixed herbs
1 tbsp salt
Pepper

Instructions:
- fry up 1 diced red onion in a pan with ghee, salt, a dash of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Stir & allow it to caramelise - it’ll take around 5 minutes. Allow to cool. 

- In a bowl add 1kg beef mince, a big handful of fresh diced parsley, 1/2 cup of our whole wheat flour (trust me on this - it keeps it so juicy), the caramelised onion, 1 tbsp salt & pepper to taste

- You want to mix this really well for at least 2 minutes to emulsify, until it is nice and sticky. Don’t skip this, it gives the sausage rolls a smooth texture & will retain juiciness. 

Now to assemble the sausage rolls!

Lay out the pastry and press 1/4 of the beef mixture in a line. It should be about 4cm wide, 4cm tall & 30cm long. Fold each side of the pastry over the meat and use a fork to lightly press the pastry into each other to seal the seam. 

Roll so it is seam-side down, and slice into your preferred length. Brush with a beaten egg and sesame seeds. Bake in 180c oven for 30 minutes.

These also freeze very well for dinner in a pinch!

We'd love to hear how you go baking these <3