Sausage Rolls

Sausage Rolls have been the go-to appetizer for Steuart’s family for New Years Eve Parties since he was a child, and that was a long time ago. Finger food, plenty of umami and not too heavy thanks to their petite size. The idea of making them hangs heavy with the long arduous task of making puff pastry, but Paul Hollywood’s cheaters version clears some of the foreboding. Grating the butter makes for a much smoother product, less butter leakage and less need for so many turns of the dough. Steuart felt the secret to his success was chilling the dough before adding the last bit of grated butter.

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Paul Hollywood’s Cheat’s Rough Puff Pastry

• 135g of butter
• 240g of flour
• Water (4-6 T approximately)

Sausage filling:

• Parsley, cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 lb ground sausage
• 4 T quinoa flakes
• egg white to brush the top

Combine 35 grams of the butter, cut in by hand until it feels like bread crumbs. Add water, a spoonful at a time, bringing it together until the pastry will form a nice ball if you swirl the bowl. Up to this point, the process is that same as you would do for a short crust pastry. Then set the pastry in the fridge to chill.

When cold, roll dough into a square and grate half of the rest of the butter that had be resting in the freezer on 2/3 of the pastry. Fold like a letter starting with the unbuttered third. Butter will be trapped between layers of pastry. Roll it out to about the same original size, about 1/2 thick. Chill.

Add the rest of the grated butter in the same manner, 2/3 cover with butter, fold and roll out. Chill anytime the butter feels too soft and any part of it close to melting. Chill.

Roll out chilled dough to a 20″ x 8″ rectangle, cut into seven 2-3 inch strips. Place a log of sausage mixture in the center of each strip and seal up the pastry gently around the sausage. Fork to seal. Chill. Heat oven to 400 °F. When temp is reached, cut into bite-size pieces and place on a lined baking tray and bake for 20 minutes.

Makes 50