It’s Wednesday and I am back again with another #AppyHolidays post! This week I am featuring the ultimate holiday appetizer on the blog: Sausage Rolls. Everyone loves these meaty appetizers, especially around the holidays. Not only do they taste delicious, they are super easy to make- even from scratch! Simply assemble some store bought puff pastry with ground chicken and turkey sausage and a few other festive ingredients and you’ll have a great holiday appetizer that will fly off the plate in seconds! Read on to see how I make them!
For the sausage filling, I like to combine both sausage meat and ground meat in this recipe. After testing the recipe a few times, I’ve noticed that using plain sausage meat in the recipe yields really oily/soggy Sausage Rolls… which doesn’t let the puff pastry rise enough. By adding a bit of ground chicken, it absorbs some of the fat and makes the filling a bit lighter, but still super flavourful. In this recipe I like to use ground white meat chicken with spicy turkey sausages- perfect for the holidays! If you can’t find spicy turkey sausages, just use some regular pork sausage… it will taste just as delicious! I just combine these two meats in a bowl and add a bit of fennel seed and mustard for extra flavour. Then, I spread the sausage filling in a long line on a sheet of puff pastry and roll them up.
At this point I like to place the sausage rolls in the freezer for a few minutes to cool off the pastry and let it firm up again! I found that by re-freezing the pastry for a few minutes allows it to puff up much more than if it was cooked from room temperature- and we need to have puffed pastry so this step is key! Once the Sausage Rolls have firmed up they are also so much easier to slice into bites. I like to cut them into 1 inch sized bites and then brush them each with a bit of egg wash (egg mixed with water or milk) so that they get nice and golden brown in the oven.
I then bake the Sausage Rolls for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees F, or until they are nice and golden brown and the sausage is fully cooked.
To serve the Sausage Rolls, you can go super traditional by serving them with a side of mustard for dipping. But if it’s the holidays, I like to serve my Sausage Rolls with a side of Cranberry Sauce. This is actually a really great way to use up any leftover cranberry sauce that you may have too!
And there you have it, another great appetizer for the holiday season! Let me know in the comments below if you have tried any of my recipes so far in my #AppyHolidays series and how they turned out!
For the full recipe for my Homemade Sausage Rolls, click here!
