A beautiful moist sausage roll, full of flavour and a true crowd-pleaser.
This is a large recipe for making sausage rolls in bulk. Great for freezing and using as after school snacks.
Makes the following number of sausage rolls:
24 large – approx 12cm long (2 per half sheet of pastry)
36 medium – approx 8cm long (3 per half sheet of pastry)
48 small – approx 6cm long (4 per half sheet of pastry)
72 bite size – approx 4cm long (6 per half sheet of pastry)
Approx 1 tbsp Rice bran oil, or other good vegetable oil
1 red onion, finely diced
100g macadamia kernels, roughly chopped (can be replaced with pine nuts)
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
(Tip: prepare the above ingredients first, then prepare the next ingredients while they are cooling)
40g parsley, roughly chopped
5g rosemary, finely chopped
5g basil, finely chopped
1 tbsp fennel seeds
100g breadcrumbs
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan (if available, use a microplane)
Grated zest of one large lemon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 kg Minced pork (for extra flavour, buy pasture-raised heritage breed pork)
6 sheets of ready made puff pastry sheets
1 extra egg, lightly beaten for egg washing the pastry
Weigh a large mixing bowl and take note of the weight before continuing.
Heat the oil in a small frying pan over a medium heat. Cook the onion until soft, then add the macadamias and garlic. Continue to cook for a few minutes then pour into the large mixing bowl (that you weighed earlier) and leave to cool.
Once cooled, add the parsley, rosemary, basil, fennel seeds, breadcrumbs, cheese, zest, eggs, salt and pepper and combine well before adding the pork mince. Use your hands to kneed all of the ingredients together. Tip: fry off a small amount of the mix at this stage to make sure the seasoning is to your liking.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan force). Take two sheets of pastry out of the freezer and place on the bench.
Once slightly defrosted, take the first sheet of pastry and slice in two straight down the middle – measure each side first and cut from the longest side.
Weigh the pork mixture, then subtract the weight of the bowl noted earlier. If you have more than 2.4kg, remove the excess and freeze, or use an extra pastry sheet to use the excess up. Divide the final pork mix weight by twelve – this is how much you will use per half sheet of pastry.
Weigh out the first portion of the pork mix and place lengthwise down one side of one of the pastry halves. Squeeze into an even sausage shape. Brush the other edge of the pastry with the lightly beaten egg before gently rolling up and sealing.
With the sealed side down, slice the roll into the number of pieces required – see top of page. Move the pieces to a baking tray covered with a sheet of baking paper. Continue to make more sausage rolls with the remaining 1 and 1/2 sheets of pastry – placing them on the baking tray when complete.
Brush the sausage rolls with egg before placing in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. While the first batch are baking take another two sheets of pastry from the freezer, let them thaw for a few minutes before making another batch as per the above.
Once the first batch are baked, remove from the oven and place the sausage rolls on a cooling rack (removing from the tray). Place the next batch of sausage rolls in the oven to bake and make the final batch.
Baking in batches enables a good even bake on every sausage roll.
If freezing, wait until all of the sausage rolls have cooled completely before placing in large plastic containers with sheets of baking paper between layers. To reheat: preheat the oven to 170°C. Place the frozen sausage rolls on a tray and bake for around 20 minutes.
The Weekly Menu Board 