Weekend Cooking: Sausage Rolls

I don't know about you but I have a list of things that I want to try and make one day, but haven't yet done so because they either feel intimidating, or too technically challenging or just because.

Things that I can think of that fall into this category for me included things like choux pastry, honeycomb and macarons. I want to make them, but I don't know when that will happen. And until recently another item on this list was sausage rolls, but not any more!

Sausage rolls are party food favourites here in Australia, along with party pies (small meat pies), and some times with cocktail sausages (think tiny hot dog sausages), as well as exorbitant amounts of tomato sauce (ketchup). And it's not only kids parties where this is true. When I used to go to monthly book club meetings, you could have all sorts of food available, but if there wasn't at least party pies or sausage rolls then there would be anarchy!

So what is a sausage roll? According to Wikipedia sausage rolls are "sheets of puff pastry formed into tubes around sausage meat and glazed with egg or milk before being baked." It also suggests that there is something called sausage bread in the United States which is similar, although the outside is pizza dough instead of puff pastry.

When I was looking for a sausage roll recipe to make, I didn't realise that I had chosen a recipe that was a bit healthier. It is one of those recipes where you hide the veggies so the kids don't realise they are there. There are plenty of other sausage roll recipes that don't have veggies in, or use different meats, but this is the recipe that I chose to make.

I would also make these again. Those hidden veggies came in handy for my man child (my son who is 21!) because I am not really sure he would eat veggies by choice. We had these for lunch one Saturday and put the leftovers in a container. The next day I was looking for the container but it had disappeared into the black hole that is his bedroom, never to be seen again.

The recipe came from Taste.com.au

Sausage Rolls

400g sausage mince
300g chicken mince
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 medium carrot, grated
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 cup (65g) fresh breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
Salt & freshly ground pepper
4 sheets frozen puff pastry, semi thawed
1 tablespoon (10g) sesame seeds
Tomato sauce, to serve


Preheat oven to 200°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Mix both minces, onion, garlic, carrot, zucchini, breadcrumbs and parsley. Beat 1 egg and add to mince mixture. Add nutmeg and seasoning. Divide into 8 equal portions.

Cut pastry sheets in half. Place a mince portion down the centre of pastry. Beat remaining egg and brush edges.

Roll up to enclose filling, and cut into 6 pieces. Place on trays, seam side down. Brush with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 20 mins, reduce heat to 180°C, and cook for 10 minutes until golden. Serve with tomato sauce.

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