These classic sausage rolls are the perfect snack food for parties and celebrations. You will love how easy these are to make as the sausage filling comes together quickly in a food processor before being wrapped up in perfectly flaky puff pastry. They taste just as you would expect from your local bakery – maybe better!
Whenever there is a party or a gathering and someone brings out a plate of mini sausage rolls and party pies, people will descend. They are a classic crowd favourite, but more often than not, they will taste a little dry and flavourless which is often compensated for by a huge dunk in tomato sauce.
I love making homemade sausage rolls because you know exactly what goes into them. You can control the flavours and they taste so much better than anything frozen you can get at the grocery store.
These are classic sausage rolls, meaning the flavours remind me of those that you get from a local bakery while on a road trip. I have eaten many different sausage rolls from around the country, and the ones that I love the most have a rich, meaty but not overly fatty sausage filling surrounded by a thin layer of flakey pastry. These achieve exactly that.
What makes this the best sausage roll recipe?
For me, the best recipes are the ones that combine the least effort for the most flavour. These sausage rolls are:
- Easy
- Not dry
- Use real meat
- Full of flavour
One thing that I think separates a bakery sausage roll with a homemade one is how fine the filling is. This can be achieved at home by using store bought sausage mince but that is often a little questionable about how much is actually meat. I also wanted to eliminate the larger chunks of onion that can sometimes creep up in my homemade fillings due to my less than professional knife skills.
The answer is to use a food processor. It sounds a bit weird, but trust me. This machine is going to chop all of your veg for you, then mix that with your meat to create the perfect filling. I can’t believe I hadn’t tried this before because it just makes the whole process so much easier and less messy.
Quick disclaimer, even though I wasn’t chopping onions by hand, when I opened the lid of the food processor I instantly started weeping to the point that my husband came in and laughed at me because I had cried so much my mascara had run down my face. But seriously, if you have a trick that works to stop onions making you cry, please let me know!
I put carrot into these sausage rolls which can sometimes be controversial. It is not because I want to sneak veggies into kids party food, but because of the flavour! All my favourite sausage rolls have the addition of carrot and I love it. Just give it a try.
With the carrot, onion, garlic and bacon making up the flavour base, and then the combination of pork and beef the filling doesn’t really need much else. But to add just a bit of extra flavour and richness, we had a little of the British secret weapon – worcestershire sauce plus a little tomato sauce or ketchup right into the filling. It makes it taste so good.
A note if you’re not Australian. Tomato sauce here is pretty much ketchup but it is also not. It can be a place of much debate in our country and you also cannot eat a pie or sausage roll without ‘tom’ sauce – pretty sure that is a national rule. In our house, we are team Heinz tomato ketchup so that is what I use, but any classic Aussie tomato sauce will do the trick.
You can also freeze these sausage rolls either cooked or uncooked, however I like to freeze after they are cooked for a grab and go style snack. Let them defrost in the fridge first if you want, or reheat them straight from frozen in the microwave or covered in the oven.
If you want something different, be sure to also try my pork, sage and pancetta sausage rolls as well.
With the footy finals in full swing, it is the perfect time to get some mates around and make a batch of these easy homemade sausage rolls. Put them on a platter in the middle of the table and watch the hungry hands descend.
If you do make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and rating below! And tag any of your creations on Instagram with #eightforestlane as I would love to see.
Classic Sausage Rolls
Ingredients
- 3 sheets frozen puff pastry thawed
- 1 onion
- 1 small or ½ large carrot
- 2 cloves garlic
- 100 grams bacon
- 250 grams lean beef mince
- 250 grams pork mince
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato sauce (ketchup)
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¾ cup breadcrumbs
- 1 egg for egg wash
- sesame seeds optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C and line 2 baking trays with oil spray or baking paper.
- Peel onion and carrot and roughly chop into quarters. Place in the bowl of a large food processor with the chopping blade attachment fitted, with the garlic and process for a minute until finely chopped. You may need to scrape down any larger pieces from the sides with a spatula before processing again.
- Add bacon and pulse until it is chopped up as part of the mixture as well. Add in pork and beef mince and again process for about a minute until mixture is combined. Add in egg, sauces and salt and pepper before pulsing again to combine. Finally add in the breadcrumbs and process the last time for about 20 seconds until mixture just comes together.
- Crack an egg into a small bowl and whisk up to make your egg wash.
- Get your thawed puff pastry sheets and cut in half so you have 6 rectangles. Using a pastry brush, add a strip of egg wash to the long edge of the rectangle at the top. Divide the sausage filling into 6 and shape into a log in the middle of each rectangle. Roll the pastry up and around the meat so that the ends seal where the egg wash is. Cut each roll into 4 even pieces and place on a baking tray a few centimetres apart. Brush the tops with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place trays in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. Serve with tomato sauce or ketchup.
Notes
Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.
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Sylvie
What a classic appetiser, I’d never thought of actually making them instead of buying them – but there is no way I will buy them ever again now… delicious!
Sally
They are so much easier to make at home than you think and taste so much better!
Robyn
These are going to be a big hit in our house! I love the fact that you can freeze them cooked too.
Sally
Makes it so much easier when you need something quick!