Sausage rolls are very popular in Britian, where they consist of fresh sausage meat encased in puff pastry and baked in the oven.  A wide variety of different fillings could be used, but the traditional one is pork seasoned with sage and thyme.  The Food Lion was strangely out of ground pork when I visited, so I made it out of meatloaf mix (i.e. a mixture of beef, pork, and veal) which they did have.  That turned out well.  We enjoyed some last night for dinner with a salad and we plan to use the rest of the batch for an appetizer before dinner on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

The traditional accompaniment for the sausage rolls is grainy mustard.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in delish.com.  It will make 4 rolls which can be cut into 6 pieces each, and it takes about 1.5 hours in total, including resting and baking time.  A key tip is to keep the puff pasty cold which will help it puff nicely in the oven.

2 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

1.5 tsp. kosher salt, divided

2 large eggs, divided

1 lb. ground pork (or meatloaf mix)

½ cup panko

1.5 tsp. dried sage

1 tsp. dried thyme

½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

½ tsp. grated fresh (or ground) nutmeg

All-purpose flour for duting

17.3 oz. package of puff pastry, thawed but cold

1 Tbs. water

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chopped onions and ½ tsp. of kosher salt, and cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Remove the onions from the hot pan and cool to room temperature.

Put in a large bowl 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp. kosher salt and the pork, panko, sage, thyme, black pepper and nutmeg.  Add the cooled onions and mix well with your hands.  Divide the pork mixture into 4 equal parts using a scale.

Working with one sheet of puff pastry at a time, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to expand it slightly to 10 x 10 inches.  Cut the rolled sheet into 2 half sheets, 10 x 5 inches.  Repeat with the second sheet so that there are a total of 4 half sheets.

Put a piece of baking parchment on a baking sheet.  On each of the half sheets of puff pastry put one-fourth of the meat filling in an even line down the middle of the long side.  Fold the two sides over the filling, pinch the seam to seal it, and put the filled roll seam-side down on the baking sheet.  Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes.  (The filled rolls can be frozen at this stage to be baked later.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, make an egg wash by beating the remaining egg with 1 Tbs. of water.

Trim off any empty ends of the rolls, and cut each roll into 6 equal pieces.  Cut diagonal slits in the pastry for each of the pieces.  Coat with the egg wash.

Bake in the oven 20-25 minutes until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes on paper towels and then serve with mustard or your favorite condiment.