Festive Sausage Roll 🌭🎄

PK recently ran a little festive bake along for the company that he works for so we thought we should also share this recipe with you guys! At first, PK wanted to make a gingerbread house but when we tested this the weekend before, it was way too hectic to deal with gingerbread cookies. Not to mention the long wait time before you can realistically ice these babies to make your gingerbread house. Alas, I told PK to change his recipe to a festive sausage roll.

Sausage rolls are one of our fav things to eat, especially with mustard and ketchup 🤤 But this won’t be any old ordinary sausage roll, this will be a wreath shaped sausage roll. We're not going to lie and say this is a healthy dish, but we’re going into the festive season after an incredibly difficult 8 months for everyone - so we think you should all indulge yourselves with delicious food.

You can substitute pork for chicken or turkey for a leaner option, or go full vegetarian or vegan with quorn sausages or a mushroom based filling. This is a great dish to bring round to your friends’ or families’ as a canape or a starter. If you’re making this for dinner, serve with a fresh salad on the side.

Serves: 5 as a starter

Difficulty: Level 3

Wow factor: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐

Ingredients

For the sausage meat mix:

• 6 or 400gr of good quality pork sausages (you can also use lamb, turkey or chicken sausages, if vegan use vegan sausages)

• 1 medium sized brown onion, finely diced

• a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped (we used about 4)

• fresh sage, rosemary and thyme sprigs

• ½ bramley apple (or granny smith), grated

• ½ tsp ground cloves

• ½ tsp ground nutmeg

• olive oil

• salt and pepper

Puff pastry

• 500gr puff pastry block (most ready to roll puff pastries are vegan but be sure to check if you have allergies)

• 1 egg, beaten, for egg wash (if vegan - use nut-based milks for your egg wash such as oat milk)

To serve:

• Cranberry sauce

• English mustard

• Ketchup

Instructions

1. Finely dice the onion and garlic. Heat up some olive oil in a pan on medium heat and start sweating the onion and garlic. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

2. If using fresh herbs, chop the rosemary, thyme and sage and put into the pan with the onions and garlic. If using dried herbs, add ½ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of each.

3. Grate your bramley apple into the pan and cook down with the onions, garlic & herbs for 5 minutes to draw out moisture. Once the onions are translucent, move the mixture to a mixing bowl to cool.

4. At this point, preheat the oven to 180c fan. Mix the raw sausage meat (remove the meat from the sausage casing) into the onion, garlic, apple & herb mixture and add in the clove and nutmeg, then set aside. If you’re using a vegan/vegetarian mushroom-based filling, make sure this is cooked before combining with the onion, garlic, apple & herb mixture.

5. On a floured surface, roll out your puff pastry to a long rectangle roughly 30cm x 45cm. If you are halving the recipe, roughly halve the size of your rectangle. Spread the mustard or cranberry sauce, if using, lengthways down the middle of the pastry, in a line about 5cm wide. Mould the sausage meat into a log on top of the mustard or cranberry sauce.

6. Beat the egg and use some to brush down one half of the pastry. Fold the other side over the meat, then the egg-washed side over this to seal. Turn over, so the seal is at the bottom, to look like a giant sausage roll. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

7. Cut two-thirds of the way through the sausage roll roughly every 3.5-4cm, to make 10 to 12 sections, then join the two ends (uncut side in the middle) together with a little more egg wash, to form a wreath.

8. Twist each piece of sausage roll over, without tearing it from the main body, so it is filling-side up. Basically all you need to do is make it look like a wreath by twisting the sausage bits around. Please see picture guidance below. Brush any exposed pastry with the remaining egg wash.

9. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the pastry is golden and puffed, and the sausage meat is cooked through.

10. Let cool, then serve with your favourite condiment. It seems rather complicated but we promise it is not when you actually start making it 🥰

Let us know if you try this delicious starter in the festive season and don't forget to tag us on @SezPK / #SezPK so we can see!