Foodie Fridays: Sausage rolls

   For the past two days I’ve been thinking of trying this recipe again. Maybe it’s Jamhuri day nostalgia (Hello doughnut-fest!). Or maybe it’s the fact that I’ve just finished a 12-day fast. But the point is that I finally gave in and made them for breakfast. So kindly note that sausage roll-making is a two step process. First of all you need to make the puff pastry...that cake-like thing that covers sausage rolls and meat pies. Then you make the rolls. You could always buy a pre-made puff pastry from your local supermarket, but I was feeling so ninja, that I made my own from scratch! So here goes:

                                                                       

Ingredients
· 225g/8oz plain flour

· ½ tsp fine salt

· 250g/9oz unsalted butter/margarine, cold but not rock hard

· 150ml/¼ pint ice-cold water

· 12 sausages



For the puff pastry:
Method

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, then put the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes to chill. (Keeping the flour and bowl cold will help you to get a better result later and create nice layers of pastry.)

2. Meanwhile, cut the butter into small cubes.

3. Using a round-bladed knife, stir the butter into the bowl until each piece is well coated with flour.

4. Pour in the water, then, working quickly, use the knife to bring everything together to a rough dough.

5. Gather the dough in the bowl using one hand, then turn it onto the work surface. Squash the dough into a fat, flat sausage, without kneading. Wrap in cling film then chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.

6. Lightly flour the work surface and the pastry. Roll out the pastry in one direction until it’s about 1cm thick and three times as long as it is wide, or about 45x15cm/18x6in. Straighten up the sides with your hands now and again, and try to keep the top and bottom edges as square as possible.

7. Fold the bottom third of the pastry up, then the top third down, to make a block about 15x15cm/6x6in. It doesn’t matter if the pastry isn’t exactly the right size - the important thing is that the corners are nice and square.

8. Turn the dough so that its open edge is facing to the right, like a book. Press the edges of the pastry together with the rolling pin.

9. Roll out and fold the pastry again, repeating this four times in all to make a smooth dough, with buttery streaks here and there. If the pastry feels greasy at any point, or starts to spring back when as you roll, then cover and chill it for 10 minutes before continuing.

10. Chill the finished pastry for an hour, or ideally overnight, before using.

 

This is how my puff pastry looked like before refrigeration overnight

For the sausage rolls
Method
1. Roll the puff pastry to about the thickness of a coin, keeping it in a rectangular shape.
 

 

2. Cut the pastry into strips as wide as your hand.

 

3. Wrap each sausage in a strip and wet the edges to seal.

 

4. Place on a greased baking tray, apply eggwash and bake in a preheated oven at 220 degrees C/ Gas mark 7 for approx. 20 minutes.

 

The final product:

 

Sealed the one on the bottom right badly...oops!

Happy Jamhuri day and Bon appetit!