The best sausage rolls with homemade ruff puff pastry

The best sausage rolls with homemade ruff puff pastry

Lesley Holdship spent hours in the kitchen developing the perfect reicpe for crispy, meaty, light sausage rolls. Now you can try the finished recipe for yourself!

Makes 20

Preparation time 40 minutes

Cooking time 25 minutes

Ingredients

300g plain flour

200g butter, diced

200ml cold water

550g belly pork from Sillfield Farm

400g pork shoulder

50g fresh white breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons of fresh thyme, leaves only

2 tablespoons of fresh chives, chopped

1½ teaspoons ground mixed spice

2 tablespoons grainy mustard from West Country Preserves

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 egg

Onion, poppy or black sesame seeds for sprinkling from Spice Mountain

Preparation Method

Preheat the oven to200°C/gas mark 6.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

To make the ruff puff:  place the flour and butter in a large mixing bowl.  Stir to cover the butter in the flour, but nothing more!  Pour in the water and stir with a round bladed knife until the mixture comes together in a scruffy ball of dough.

Use the ball of dough to press up all of the dry bits in the bowl then place on a lightly floured surface.  It will look very untidy at this stage but don’t be tempted to knead it.

Roll the dough, making sure it doesn’t stick, into a long strip about 30cm long.  Fold into three, as you would a letter.  Give the piece of pastry a quarter turn and repeat the rolling and folding.  You need to do this seven to eight times until all of the butter streaks disappear.  Leave to rest while you prepare the filling.

Making sure the belly pork has no skin on it, mince it along with the pork shoulder.  Once minced, mix together with the breadcrumbs, herbs, spice and mustard and season generously.

Cut the pastry in half then roll each piece into a long rectangle about 40cm long and just 12cm wide.  Divide the sausage meat in half and lay along the centre of the pastry.

Break the egg and give it a little whisk.  Brush around the edges of the pastry then roll up.  Brush with egg and sprinkle on some seeds.  Cut each length into 10-12 pieces.  Place on the baking sheets.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden.  Eat with your fingers!