Who doesn’t love a sausage roll?! They are very easy to make and quite simply delicious – I don’t know about you but I’m a sucker for sausage rolls and will happily consume my body weight in them if given the chance. Rollback two years ago and I could quite confidently say I’d only ever eaten venison a handful of times maybe at a nice pub meal with family. I then met my boyfriend – a contract farmer and avid shot in his spare time. Watching him is where my love of field sports began and ultimately my increased consumption of gorgeous game meat. Roll on the beginning of this year (before ‘rona decided to ruin an amazingly planned year) – I’ve now got my own license and beautiful 12bore and can’t wait for every opportunity to get out with it with Michael and of course my days out with the amazing CGUK girls – who are amazing!
As well as driven and rough shooting, Michael also goes stalking – he keeps our chest freezer stocked up nicely along with providing carcases to our local butcher
These sausage rolls are made quite frequently in our house – especially around the shooting season they make an appearance on shoot days along with other baked goods
If I’m honest I tend to be an experimental baker… I start off following a recipe to learn the general gist, then I tend to deviate slightly by putting my own twist on it! What follows experimental baking is that I don’t always measure…. I know! -Not handy when writing a recipe blog haha! Don’t worry, in this case, I have tried my best to measure out what I use to make it super simple and easy to follow. For example, don’t worry if your meat doesn’t weigh exactly 500g each (my butcher’s sausage meat varies slightly and this week weighed in at 470g) but you get my point… don’t worry too much, it isn’t a recipe that you can really get horribly wrong!
The most important thing is that you schedule yourself time afterwards to sit down and enjoy a warm sausage roll…. (taste testing obviously before you let others try them)
Ingredients:
Makes 24 sausage roll
- 500g Venison mince
- 500g Sausage meat
- 2 x Jus-Rol Puff Pastry sheet
- 1tsp Rosemary
- 1tsp Thyme
- 1tsp onion granules
- Salt & Pepper
- Sweet chilli jam
- 1x Egg
- Nigella seeds (optional)
Notes:
- If chilli isn’t your thing then try caramelised onion chutney instead as it is equally as delicious (I have used sweet chilli jam this time as I had an enormous crop of chilis grow in my veggie garden this year so we are currently working our way through A LOT of sweet chilli jam)
- Nigella seeds are one of the many herbs/spices I have in my cupboard – if you haven’t tried them before they are gorgeous, like a mix between poppy seeds and onion seeds. These are an optional finish so don’t worry if you don’t have any
- Also, if you’re miss fancy pants then go ahead and make your own puff pastry… I mean who has the time for that I don’t know?! But big pat on the back if you do!
—– Pre-heat your oven to 200c (you may need lower if you have a fan oven) —–
STEP 1:
Mix the venison and sausage meat in a bowl
STEP 2:
Add the rosemary, thyme, onion granules and a generous amount of salt and pepper and then mix until all combined
STEP 3:
Roll out the puff pastry sheets and cut in half length ways
FUTURE MEAL HACK:
If you only have one sheet of pastry then save half of the meat, roll into meatballs and freeze for a future pre-prepared meal
STEP 4:
Then spread the sweet chilli jam (as much or as little as you’d like) down the centre of each bit of pastry.
Make sure you don’t add too much as it adds to the moisture content – and everybody knows you don’t want a soggy bottom!!
REMEMBER:
At this point you could use caramelised onion chutney, or even something more festive like red-currant jelly
STEP 5:
Split the meat into 4 equal portions (if you are using 2 rolls of pastry) and make a long sausage shape of meat down the centre of the pastry on top of the sweet chilli jamMake sure you get the meat right to the end of the pastry – no one wants the end sausage roll if it has half the amount of tasty meat in!
STEP 6:
Roll the pastry over and crimp the edges sealed with your fingers (I mean if you’re clever you can make it look all fancy and professional… I haven’t quite managed that look yet)
Rustic… lets go with rustic!
Cut each long roll into 6 (unless you want smaller/bigger – this will obviously affect your overall amount and cooking times may vary slightly if sizing is drastically different)
Separate and arrange on a lined baking tray (use the parchment paper the pre-rolled pastry came with on your baking tray)Beat your egg and then use a pastry brush to coat each individual sausage roll on top.
STEP 7:
Sprinkle nigella seeds over the top of each sausage roll
(this is an optional finish)But definitely worth trying if you can get some
STEP 8:
Place the sausage rolls in the pre-heated oven for approximately
25-30minutes
(or until the pastry is nice and golden)
Time is up, the kitchen smells incredible, it can only mean one thing…
Time to enjoy!!
Blog written by Millie Clarke