Sausage rolls are a popular savory pastry in the United Kingdom, and for good reason. Can you imagine anything better than a warm, savory, meat-filled pastry served hot from the oven on a cold snowy night? They also make the perfect quick lunch. Just grab and go.
Aran Bakery serves up quite a few sausage rolls in the quaint town of Dunkeld, Scotland. Great British Bake Off star Flora Shedden’s cookbook Aran: Recipes and Stories from a Bakery in the Heart of Scotland includes three recipes from the bakery for savory sausage rolls and we’re excited to share their pork apple sausage roll recipe with you! Now you can make these easy homemade sausage rolls anytime you want! Flora contributed to The Taste Edit’s second issue. If you’d like to see her other recipes in the issue, just click here to purchase.
Photo by Laura Edwards. Words by Flora Shedden.
These were first made famous by Frank Maxwell, an entertainingly loud man who raved about them in the pub one night a few days after we opened. His high decibels were heard by most of the village and we spent our first-year trading desperately trying to make enough sausage rolls to stop them selling out within the first hour. It was both a blessing and a curse (specifically if you ask Scott, who has spent days and days making the pesky little things); however, despite all this, I reckon we owe him a dedication. Thanks for making all that noise, Frank.
Aran Bakery's Pork, Apple and Sage Scottish Sausage Rolls
Ingredients
- plain, all-purpose flour, for dusting
- 1 kg (2 lb 3 1⁄4 oz) puff pastry
- 1 egg, beaten
- splash of milk
- white sesame seeds, to decorate piccalilli, mustard or chutney, to serve watercress, to serve
- 500 g 1 lb (1 1⁄2 oz) good-quality sausages, casing removed
- 500 g 1 lb (1 1⁄2 oz) minced (ground) pork belly
- 100 g 31⁄2 oz/2/3 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 small bunch fresh sage, finely chopped grating of nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large Granny Smith apple, skin on, grated
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Put the sausage meat into a large mixing bowl and add the minced pork belly and the breadcrumbs and sage. Add a good grating of nutmeg, then scrunch together well with your clean hands. Once combined, add the salt and pepper, then the apple. Lastly, crack in the egg and mix again to combine.
- On a floured work surface, roll the pastry out into a big rectangle measuring 60 × 48 cm (24 × 19 in). It will be roughly 2.5 mm thick. Cut into 12 rectangles measuring 20 × 12 cm (8 × 5 in) each. Roll roughly 100 g (31⁄2 oz) of the pork mixture into a sausage shape, approximately 12 cm (5 in) long. Repeat with the rest of the mixture and lay each along the top edge of each rectangle.
- Mix the egg and milk and brush the pastry with the mixture, then roll the patry around the sausage meat, starting from the top until all the pastry has been wrapped around to encase the meat. Press down gently to seal.
- Pour the sesame seeds into a shallow dish. Brush the top of the sausage rolls with more of the egg and milk, then dip into the sesame seeds, making sure you get a good coating. Place on a baking (cookie) sheet and bake for 20–25 minutes, or until puffed, golden and cooked through. Serve with piccalilli, mustard or chutney and some watercress.
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