In a sense, lets take a page out of the "Distill An Entire Country Down To A Single Dish" playbook. We are talking sausage rolls today.
Ride that unnamed baking show from the United Kingdom’s fame right now. You’ve heard Paul Hollywood distill a lot of creations down to “that’s just a sausage roll”, and for us Americans, we might not have a reference point for that. So let’s change that – these can generally be scaled up to a full entrée, but I like to have them on the smaller side to bring to breakfast/brunch/snack potlucks. They disappear rapidly, take a very minimal amount of effort, and can be served warm or room temperature (I actually prefer them on the cooler side once the pastry and sausage has re-solidified).
Also, much like the bake-off, we aren’t making dairy free puff pastry by hand. It’s a damn nightmare to trudge through (although you should try it at least once), and it completely defeats the spirit of this entire recipe (plus you’ve seen the disasters that occur when you try to make puff pastry yourself). That’s another episode (sorry Alton Brown, don’t sue me). Shopping List (Sausage Rolls):
Shopping List (Grainaise):
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Hardware:
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Prep:
In a large skillet over medium-low heat, sweat onions in olive oil for 5-6 minutes with salt, red chili flake, oregano, fennel seed, and black pepper. You’re just looking to soften the onions and remove a decent amount of moisture from them (hence why you added salt). Add crushed garlic, cook for 30 seconds until fragrant (you’re not looking for this to cook that much as it will burn quickly, stir in that chopped sage, and then remove from stove immediately and allow to cool completely.
Once cool, add this mixture to the eggs, panko, and sausage mixture to make essentially a meatloaf-like texture. Don’t worry about overworking the meat here. You want to build up as much myocin (the protein that makes ground/minced meat products springy and sticky) so the sausage rolls will keep their shape and not flatten out like a sausage…blob? Yeah we’re going with blob.
This entire mixture can sit in your fridge for days (and honestly wouldn’t make for bad sausage patties for a breakfast if there is leftover mix, but we’re going to be using MOST of it.
Preheat your oven to 400° F convection (if you have it).
While that is warming up, defrost the rolls of puff pastry sheets outside of their wrapper on a baking tray. The directions on the package say it takes about 30-40 minutes to fully defrost, and it’ll probably take a good 20 for your oven to heat up, so use this time wisely.
Once the sheets are pliable enough to work with (without them feeling brittle), cut them in half to about a 10”x5” rectangle.
Make 12 equally spaced cuts down the sides, cutting approximately 1/3 the way through each sheet (these will make the plait). Doing some math, you’ll see that each cut should be about ¾”, so most likely the length of your first knuckle on your pinky finger. Or use a ruler, whichever floats your boat. Just make them even, don’t be like me on my first one. [see reference image below]
Place a line/tube of sausage mix of about 1.5” in diameter in the center, uncut section of the pastry. Now we plait. Fold each flap of puff pastry over the sausage, pulling relatively tight, and slightly toward you to angle it downward, alternating to make a plaited pattern, pressing well to seal as you go along. Brush with the egg wash (you did whisk together the egg wash, right?), and sprinkle liberally with flaky salt (regular kosher salt will work here too). Repeat until you’ve exhausted your supply of sausage and/or puff pastry. I can generally get at least 7 out of the 8 sheets well filled and stuffed, but your mileage may vary. Work quickly, though…as the saturated fat magic starts to melt, you’ll have a less puffy pastry. Unless that’s your thing (maybe that’s actually more traditional? Someone from the Isles help me).
Transfer these to an unprepared sheet pan. No cooking spray, no greasing, nothing. I even dislike using parchment here as it’s sort of a liability with the copious amounts of fat and pastry that could stick to the parchment, and thus serve paper to your guests.
If you aren't baking these immediately, I suggest tossing them back into the freezer as the fat will melt and you won't get a good puff otherwise.
The Business:
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown on top. Depending on your sheet pan, you’ll need to adjust. It's like baking cakes, sometimes the dark ones work well, and others you'll have that restaurant supply store aluminum ones perform the best. I haven't done the math on this yet. YET.
Everything will still be very molten, so I tend to leave the sausage rolls on the pan for a minute or two, and THEN carefully transfer to cooling rack where I let sit for 5-10 minutes to re-solidify. Like I said, I enjoy these at room temperature, so you avoid the “I just burned the shit out of the roof of my mouth” syndrome.
While those are cooling, whisk together the grainaise condiments to make…the grainaise.
Slice the sausage rolls into 1-2 inch rounds (you may crunch parts of your puff pastry, but that’s no big deal really) and serve, garnishing with fresh chopped parsley and serve with mustard grainaise.
In a large skillet over medium-low heat, sweat onions in olive oil for 5-6 minutes with salt, red chili flake, oregano, fennel seed, and black pepper. You’re just looking to soften the onions and remove a decent amount of moisture from them (hence why you added salt). Add crushed garlic, cook for 30 seconds until fragrant (you’re not looking for this to cook that much as it will burn quickly, stir in that chopped sage, and then remove from stove immediately and allow to cool completely.
Once cool, add this mixture to the eggs, panko, and sausage mixture to make essentially a meatloaf-like texture. Don’t worry about overworking the meat here. You want to build up as much myocin (the protein that makes ground/minced meat products springy and sticky) so the sausage rolls will keep their shape and not flatten out like a sausage…blob? Yeah we’re going with blob.
This entire mixture can sit in your fridge for days (and honestly wouldn’t make for bad sausage patties for a breakfast if there is leftover mix, but we’re going to be using MOST of it.
Preheat your oven to 400° F convection (if you have it).
While that is warming up, defrost the rolls of puff pastry sheets outside of their wrapper on a baking tray. The directions on the package say it takes about 30-40 minutes to fully defrost, and it’ll probably take a good 20 for your oven to heat up, so use this time wisely.
Once the sheets are pliable enough to work with (without them feeling brittle), cut them in half to about a 10”x5” rectangle.
Make 12 equally spaced cuts down the sides, cutting approximately 1/3 the way through each sheet (these will make the plait). Doing some math, you’ll see that each cut should be about ¾”, so most likely the length of your first knuckle on your pinky finger. Or use a ruler, whichever floats your boat. Just make them even, don’t be like me on my first one. [see reference image below]
Place a line/tube of sausage mix of about 1.5” in diameter in the center, uncut section of the pastry. Now we plait. Fold each flap of puff pastry over the sausage, pulling relatively tight, and slightly toward you to angle it downward, alternating to make a plaited pattern, pressing well to seal as you go along. Brush with the egg wash (you did whisk together the egg wash, right?), and sprinkle liberally with flaky salt (regular kosher salt will work here too). Repeat until you’ve exhausted your supply of sausage and/or puff pastry. I can generally get at least 7 out of the 8 sheets well filled and stuffed, but your mileage may vary. Work quickly, though…as the saturated fat magic starts to melt, you’ll have a less puffy pastry. Unless that’s your thing (maybe that’s actually more traditional? Someone from the Isles help me).
Transfer these to an unprepared sheet pan. No cooking spray, no greasing, nothing. I even dislike using parchment here as it’s sort of a liability with the copious amounts of fat and pastry that could stick to the parchment, and thus serve paper to your guests.
If you aren't baking these immediately, I suggest tossing them back into the freezer as the fat will melt and you won't get a good puff otherwise.
The Business:
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown on top. Depending on your sheet pan, you’ll need to adjust. It's like baking cakes, sometimes the dark ones work well, and others you'll have that restaurant supply store aluminum ones perform the best. I haven't done the math on this yet. YET.
Everything will still be very molten, so I tend to leave the sausage rolls on the pan for a minute or two, and THEN carefully transfer to cooling rack where I let sit for 5-10 minutes to re-solidify. Like I said, I enjoy these at room temperature, so you avoid the “I just burned the shit out of the roof of my mouth” syndrome.
While those are cooling, whisk together the grainaise condiments to make…the grainaise.
Slice the sausage rolls into 1-2 inch rounds (you may crunch parts of your puff pastry, but that’s no big deal really) and serve, garnishing with fresh chopped parsley and serve with mustard grainaise.