Sausage rolls

I bought sausage meat from the butchers a while back but I wasn't sure what to do with it. One day my partner says 'Why don't you make sausage rolls?'. Of course! Why hadn't I thought about that?

It's relatively easy to make and it's really delicious. It doesn't taste like a cheap sausage roll, it tastes like a gourmet sausage roll.

This is a Paul Hollywood recipe and he called for caramelised onion chutney but I used my onion & apple chutney that I had in the fridge. However, I can see the strong caramelised onion flavour matching heavenly with the meat. 

Serves: 6 large rolls.

Ingredients:

• For the rough puff pastry:
• 225g plain flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 20g chilled unsalted butter, cubed
• juice of ½ lemon (4 tbsp)
• 180-200ml cold water (I used only 150ml)
• For the filling:
• 450g sausage meat
• 1 tbsp chopped thyme
• 60g caramelised onion chutney
• salt & pepper to taste
• To glaze: 1 egg, lightly beaten

Method:

1. To make the pastry, put the flour, salt and butter into a bowl. Stir the lemon juice into the water and add ¾ of the liquid to the bowl. Gently stir until the mix bonds together, adding the remaining water if necessary. You should have a lumpy dough. Do not work or knead the dough too much - you want to keep the lumps of butter.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and flatten out to a rectangle. Using a rolling pin, roll out slightly to a narrow rectangle, about 2.5cm thick. Fold ⅓ of the dough on itself, then the opposite ⅓ down over that, as if folding a business letter (this is called a 'turn'). Wrap the pastry in cling film and rest in the fridge for 20 min.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Unwrap the pastry and repeat the turn by rolling it at a 90° angle to the original roll, out to a rectangle, about 40x15 cm. Fold as above, then re-wrap and chill for a further 20 min. Repeat the process twice more, chilling the dough for at least 20 min between each turn.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Roll out the dough to a rectangle, about 60x20 cm, and trim the edges to neaten. Cut into 6 even rectangles.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. For the filling, mix the sausage meat with the thyme and salt & pepper to taste. Divide the sausage meat into 6 portions. Using floured hands, roll each portion into a sausage shape. I used a scale to weight the total weight and then divide by 6 evenly.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Spread 1 tsp of chutney along each pastry rectangle, leaving the edges clear. Lay a filling sausage across the top of each pastry rectangle. Roll up to enclose the sausage filling and brush the pastry edges with beaten egg to seal.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Place the sausage rolls on a baking parchment lined baking tray. Brush with beaten egg and cut several diagonal lines across the top of each sausage roll.
   
   
   
8. Bake in a 200°C oven for 30 min or until golden brown and cooked through. The 1st picture below is after 15 min of baking. I thought they had quite a light colour so I decided to brush with egg again. After another 15 min, the end result is on the 2nd picture. They were much more golden but I didn't like the way they looked. Next time I'll stick to the recipe and only brush once.