Learn how to make home made sausage rolls with juicy pork mince, parmesan and buttery puff pastry. Bakery style or party size, these sausage rolls are easy, juicy on the inside and crisp and buttery on the outside and inspired by classic Italian meatball flavours. I'll show you how to make full-sized bakery sausage rolls as well as bite-sized party sausage rolls so you can enjoy them any way you like. These are perfect for picnics or Father's Day coming up.
About These Homemade Sausage Rolls
These sausage rolls were inspired by my Italian meatball recipe. A Dear Reader Ruby is a big fan of these and asked me if I thought that this filling work in a sausage roll form as she wanted to pack it into lunchboxes. And do you know what? This pork mince filling works SO well. I also added in some of the flavours of Italian meatballs like parmesan cheese plus you'll be dipping these in tomato sauce (or you can use marinara or tomato pasta sauce too!). These are incredibly juicy too with a crisp, layered buttery pastry. I'll show you how to make these in the bigger size so that they'll be just like you bought them from your favourite bakery (but don't worry I also give you tips on how to make cute party versions too! :) ).
Ingredients For Making Homemade Sausage Rolls
There's nothing really unusual in these homemade sausage rolls.
Oil - use any sort of oil you like
Brown onion - use a large brown or white onion. Red onion also works but you can see it in the filling.
Garlic - use large cloves of fresh garlic
Egg - use a large egg
Pork mince - I always have lean pork mince on hand and you don't need a mince with high fat to make this juicy I promise!
Fresh breadcrumbs - I make my own breadcrumbs with slightly stale bread just whizzed up in the Thermomix.
Milk - use full cream or skim milk
Parmesan cheese - or pecorino. Even pre-grated cheese will work in this.
Chicken stock powder - I always talk about this chicken powder but seriously it's the best kitchen secret that I got from my mother. You can also use your favourite chicken stock cube.
Salt - use fine salt
Lemon zest - make sure to finely grate the lemon zest
Black pepper - freshly cracked black pepper is best
Butter puff pastry - please check that it says Butter on the packaging. If it doesn't say butter, it is made using vegetable oil or fat and just won't taste as good.
Tips For Making Homemade Sausage Rolls
1 - For the best tasting results, use butter puff pastry. Nothing beats the flavour of butter and this is how to get that bakery style sausage roll flavour.
2 - Always taste your sausage roll filling once you mix it up. You can fry a 1/2 tablespoon full just to test it out.
3 - Refrigerating your sausage roll filling allows the mixture to firm up and makes it much easier to handle.
4 - I like using fresh rather than dried breadcrumbs. Dried breadcrumbs can suck the moisture out of a mixture whereas fresh ones don't as much. Even with lean pork mince these sausage rolls are noticeably juicy and moist inside.
5 - Don't skip the breadcrumbs. If you use just meat without any other filler the meat can be tough. My Italian meatball recipe uses breadcrumbs that makes them super tender.
6 - Always freeze your sausage rolls before the final step of baking. The way to get your puff pastry crisp and delicious is to have the very cold pastry hit a very hot oven. That produces all of those lovely, distinct buttery layers.
Preparation time: 15 minutes plus 1 hour refrigeration time and 20 minutes freezing time
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Makes: 4 extra large bakery style sausage rolls or 16-24 party sausage rolls
Ingredients Needed
1 tablespoon oil
1 brown onion, peeled (around 125g/4ozs)
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 egg, beaten
500g/1.1lbs lean pork mince
50g/1.7ozs fresh breadcrumbs
50ml/1.7flozs milk
90g/3ozs grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 sheets butter puff pastry
1 beaten egg for egg wash
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1a Conventional - Finely dice the onion. Place a small saucepan on low to medium heat. Add the oil and onion and saute for 5-7 minutes. Finely chop the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool while you gather the rest of the ingredients. In a large bowl place the onion and garlic, egg, pork mince, breadcrumbs, milk, parmesan, chicken stock powder, salt, lemon zest and black pepper. Knead together until everything is well dispersed and the pork is seasoned well. Add a little of the mixture to the saucepan and fry until cooked through. Taste for seasoning adding more salt and pepper if needed. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Step 1b Thermomix-Place the onion in the TM bowl and set to 5 seconds, #4. Scrape down sides and repeat. Add in oil and set to 7 minutes/100C/reverse chop. Add in garlic and set to 1 minute/100C/reverse chop. Add in the egg, pork mince, breadcrumbs, milk, parmesan, stock powder, salt, lemon zest and pepper. Set to dough/knead for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides and repeat for another 30 seconds. Add a little of the mixture to a saucepan and fry until cooked through. Taste for seasoning adding more salt and pepper if needed. Refrigerate for 1 hour. While the filling is firming up in the fridge, thaw the puff pastry in the fridge.
Troubleshooting with puff pastry: Butter puff pastry is a bit more delicate than puff pastry made using vegetable oil or fat so work with one sheet at a time keeping the other one in the fridge. If it starts to get too sloppy or hard to work with, pop the sheet back in the freezer for 5-7 minutes.
Step 2 - Divide the mixture in half. I had 860g/30ozs total of filling so I divided it into two equal 430g/15ozs portions. Take one sheet of butter puff pastry and place the filling in a thick, circular log on one side. Roll up tightly so that you keep a round (not flat) shape leaving a small lip around 1.5cms/0.6inch. Repeat with the other sheet. Place on parchment in a tray in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.
To make party sausage rolls, cut each 24x24cm square of butter puff pastry sheet in half and pipe a log of filling down one side on each half. Fold over and seal with egg wash. Cut each log into 4-6 pieces. Repeat with the second sheet of pastry. You may need 3-4 sheets of butter puff pastry for party sausage rolls depending on how much you fill them.
Step 3 - Preheat oven to 220c/440F conventional or 200C/400F fan forced. Cut each log in half so you end up with 4 sausage rolls. Brush generously with egg wash on the top and the lip of the pastry. Bake for 30 minutes, turning around 20 minutes in. Once baked, cool on a baking rack so that the pastry remains crisp. Serve with tomato sauce/ketchup.
Personal Note
I made these as a test run recipe for Father's Day coming up. Dads are funny because while people think they're all about visits to Bunnings or the hardware store and barbecues, they're really so different with their taste. My father has such an idiosyncratic menu of things that he eats and it changes frequently. Mr NQN doesn't overly enjoy barbecues preferring a big bowl of fruit salad and his father, well his father Roger is about a novel's worth of crazy stories that one day I will share - if I get permission to do so!
We learned something funny the other day. Mr NQN's sister Amaya and her husband Laporello are building their own house on the Central Coast of NSW. It is a very unique house, designed to be fire resistant. The front of the house will close up and slide over to prevent damage to the house and it will be made of cement.
The only thing is that they have been waiting for this house to be built for years. Around 8 years. We asked them why the builder was taking so long because 8 years is a long time for anyone to wait.
It turns out that the delay is caused because they are getting a discount by the builder because their house will be a show house. That means once a week people will be able to traipse through their house. Not only that but Laporello is going to do sales for the house. Mr NQN and I looked at each other. Laporello is an interesting guy but I don't think he has any experience in sales, let alone sales of a house. He is also a little out there.
But then Mr NQN reminded them that that was exactly what their dad Roger did. He had the same deal with a mattress manufacturer over 10 years ago. He had this mattress in his apartment in Manly and anyone was welcome to sleep there to try it. I mean it's a novel idea but not surprisingly, nobody really took him up on the offer of sleeping in a strange man's apartment. At the very least you'd assume there were cameras there and at the worst, well you're talking to someone that consumes true crime like people consume air!
So tell me Dear Reader, what does your father like eating? Would you ever agree to have your home used as a show house? Do you think you would take up an offer to "test" something in a stranger's home or is that a hard no?
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