Pork, Caramelised Apple and Caraway Sausage Rolls

Today is Father's Day in Australia.  If you want to help your meat-loving Dad celebrate with some food treats, you can't go past the Pork, Caramelised Apple and Fennel Sausage Rolls in the Tivoli Road Baker book. 

These sausage rolls have an absolutely delicious filling, and go down a treat with a dipper of tomato sauce.

Me being me, I substituted the fennel seeds for caraway seeds (because that is what I had), and on top of the sausage rolls, I used a mixture of sesame seeds and poppy seeds that I had from another project (again in substitution for fennel seeds). 

I highly recommend giving these sausage rolls a go if you are a meat lover.  To make them, you will need (as modified by me):

2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 brown onions, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
20g butter
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1.2kg pork mince
65g fresh breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1 lightly beaten egg
5 sheets Pampas frozen puff pastry
sesame seeds for sprinkling on top

Toast the caraway seeds in a small dry frypan until fragrant.  Crush in a mortar and pestle, and set aside.

 In a large frying pan, heat the vegetable oil.  sweat off the garlic and onions until lightly caramelised.  Add the caraway seeds, rosemary and thyme, cook for a minute, then set aside to cool.

Wipe out the large frypan and melt the butter in it.  Cook the apples in the butter for 2 minutes, then add the sugar to the pan.  Cook until the sugar is caramelised, then deglaze the pan with the vinegar, and set the apples aside to cool.  

Combine the mince, apples, breadcrumbs and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Using your hands, mix through the onion and garlic mixture until all ingredients are evenly distributed.

Cut each sheet of puff pastry in half.  Divide the sausage mixture evenly between each half piece of pastry (10 batches in all), and place the mince along a long edge of each piece of pastry, forming into a sausage shape with your hands which is the length of the pastry.  Brush the other long edge of the pastry with the beaten egg, then roll the pastry from the meat side to the beaten egg side, with the sealed edge on the bottom.  Place each roll on a baking tray, then brush the top of the sausage rolls with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Lightly prick the top of each roll with a fork.  Refrigerate the rolls for half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Bake the sausage rolls for 40 minutes or until golden on top and cooked through.

Serve warm with tomato sauce on the side.

Phillippa's Sausage Rolls

Who doesn't love an Aussie sausage roll?  Spicy mince, flaky pastry and tomato sauce (of course!) merge to make one delicious, popular treat.

I recently made the sausage rolls from Phillippa's Home Baking, which use rough puff pastry and a mixture of beef and pork mince.  For those not from Melbourne, Phillippa's is a bakery institution established by Phillippa Grogan, famed for its breads and other baked goods. 

These sausage rolls did not disappoint - they had flaky pastry, and were just on the right side of spicy and juicy:

Have I tempted you to make some sausage rolls for yourself?  If so, you will need:

Rough puff:

225g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
170g cold butter, cubed
125ml chilled water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Put the flour and salt into a bowl.  Add the butter, water and lemon juice.  Use your hands to mix the ingredients together into a rough dough, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Take the dough from the fridge and roll into a rectangle about 20cm x 30cm, with the edges being as straight as possible.  Fold one short end of the dough into the middle of the rectangle, then fold the doubled over part of the dough over the top of the remaining third of the dough so that you have a folded piece of pastry measuring 20cm x 10cm.  Wrap in plastic film and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Repeat the rolling and folding process with the pastry three more times.  You now have ready to use rough puff pastry!

Sausage rolls: 

80g fresh breadcrumbs
1 brown onion, chopped
100ml tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt 
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
350g beef mince
350g pork mince
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped thyme or sage
1 x rough puff pastry
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Process the breadcrumbs in a food processor to make medium sized breadcrumbs, and place into a large bowl.

Put the onion, tomato sauce, mustard, salt and pepper into the food processor and blitz to a puree, then spoon into the bowl with the breadcrumbs.  Add the mince, parsley and herbs to the bowl and mix with your hands until well combined.  Place into a covered bowl and chill.

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.  Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicon mats.

Lightly flour your work bench, then roll out the rough puff pastry into a rectangle measuring 48cm x 30cm.  Cut the pastry into three pieces measuring 30cm x 16cm each.

Take the sausage meat mixture and divide into three even pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, then roll  each ball into a sausage measuring the length of the long end of the pastry.  Place one sausage on the edge of one long end of a pastry strip, brush the opposite long end of the pastry strip with water, then roll the pastry, starting with the sausage edge, to enclose the sausage in the pastry. Press the edges of the pastry join lightly with a fork to seal.

Repeat for each of the other two pastry strips and the remaining sausage mixture.  Cut each long sausage roll into the desired size using a sharp knife (I cut each into quarters for party sized sausage rolls).

In a small bowl, beat the egg and milk together with a fork, then using a pastry brush, brush this egg wash mixture over the top of the sausage rolls.  

Place the sausage rolls on the lined trays and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until cooked through and golden on top. 

Serve the sausage rolls hot with lashings of tomato sauce.

Chili Con Carne Sausage Rolls

For our Movember morning tea last week, I also made Beef and Bean Sausage Rolls from the Bourke St Bakery Cookbook.  These sausage rolls are inspired by chili con carne.

I was glad I made these, as they were the sole savoury offering on our morning tea menu, and they went quickly.  If I say so myself, they were delicious.  It also used up the puff pastry living in my freezer, taking up precious space. 

The recipe for these sausage rolls is as follows:

1/2 of a 400g tin red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
20ml olive oil
3 chopped garlic cloves
2 small red chillies, deseeded and  finely chopped
1 chopped brown onion
500g beef mince
30g dry breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
3 sheets store-bought ready-rolled puff pastry

1 egg
1/2 cup milk
chilli flakes, for sprinkling

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, chillies and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the kidney beans stir together for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Put the bean mixture in a large mixing bowl and add the beef, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix for 3 minutes to thoroughly combine.

Make an egg wash by whisking together the egg, milk and a pinch of salt. 

Take a pastry sheet and cut it in half so that you have two long rectangles.

Divide the beef mixture into six even-sized portions. On a clean work surface, roll each portion out into a log. Place each log in the centre of a pastry sheet and brush one long edge with egg wash. Firmly fold the pastry over, pressing to enclose, leaving the ends open. Cut each roll into 3-4 pieces and place on baking trays lined with baking paper. Brush the top of each roll with egg wash and sprinkle with chilli flakes. Bake for 35-40 mins, or until they are golden brown.

Enjoy!

WWDH - Sausage Rolls

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is sausage rolls, selected by me.  The recipe is in Modern Classics I, or online here.

For Aussies, the sausage roll is a classic.  It features at parties, in lunchboxes or on long drives when you stop at the bakery for a quick lunch.  In short, it is a national treasure.

I noticed that online, Donna classifies this as a recipe for kids.  This may be why she was very light on the spice.  Me, I would have loved more spice, more kick.  However, these were OK - I can get my kick from the sauce, because as you know, a sausage roll has to be dipped in sauce before eating, preferably tomato.

I halved the recipe and still managed to comfortably get 12 chubby sausage rolls.

To see what Kayte, Margaret, Chaya and Sarah thought of the sausage roll, visit their websites. 

Nick Malgieri's Sausage Rolls

Last week, our team at work had an international day. We were required to bring along a dish to share from our country of origin. I am Australian, so an obvious choice for me was to make sausage rolls.


Now, I didn't make just any old sausage rolls - I made Nick Malgieri's sausage rolls, based on his experiences at Babka in Melbourne, Australia. This alone hooked me - but the added benefit for me is that I had already made the quick puff pastry recipe forming part of the sausage rolls for a Tuesday with Dorie challenge, so I had a head start.

These sausage rolls were delicious - the meat was flavourful but not overly spicy, and encased in a golden brown puff pastry. The sausage rolls all disappeared, which I think is a good sign :).

When I went back to Nick's site to obtain the link to the sausage roll recipe, it had disappeared, nowhere to be found, but I luckily had a copy of it, which (with my minor tweaks here and there) is as follows:

1 batch quick puff pastry (recipe here)

225g fresh white bread crumbs
2/3 cup milk, scalded
350g pork mince
350g veal mince
2 white onions
1/3 cup mustard
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
salt and pepper

1 beaten egg for egg wash

Roll the puff pastry out to an 18 inch square on as lightly floured surface, and trim the edges if necessary. Slide the rolled pastry onto the back of a Swiss roll pan, cover with cling film and refrigerate while preparing the filling.

Soak the white bread crumbs in the milk until all of the milk is absorbed, then squeeze out the excess milk. Combine all of the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine well. Stir in the soaked bread crumbs, and season to taste.

Remove the rolled puff pastry from the fridge and onto a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into 3 strips, each 6 inches wide. Brush a half inch strip of egg wash down the length of each strip of pastry on the far right hand side only. Place one third of the sausage mixture in a inch thick roll down the entirety of the left hand side of each pastry strip.

Roll each filled pastry strip like a Swiss roll, starting with the left side, encasing the sausage mixture in the pastry. Roll each sausage cylinder onto a baking tray or Swiss roll pan, seam side down, and cover with cling film before refrigerating for 30 minutes.

When it is time to bake your sausage rolls, preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Remove the sausage rolls from the refrigerator and cut each of the three long rolls into 3 x 6 inch lengths (or 6 x 3 inch lengths for party sausage rolls, like me). Pace the pieces onto a greased baking tray, seam side down, and brush the top of each roll with egg wash. Using a sharp knife, cut 3 half inch slashes diagonally across the top of each sausage roll.

Bake the sausage rolls on the reheated oven for around 3 minutes or until deep golden brown.

Serve immediately with tomato sauce on the side.