Herby, peppery pork and sweet, tangy cranberry sauce all wrapped up in flaky puff pastry. These sausage rolls are an excellent option for festive treats! I have made these for friends and family many times now and they are always a big crowd pleaser. Simple, easy and packed with festive flavour! I tend to make these as party food or maybe a starter to other seasonal dishes, such as my glazed roast duck. I have made vegetarian versions of these using stuffing mix instead of sausage, and I have also used gluten free pastry before to make them appropriate for everyone!

Sausage Rolls in the UK

It is no secret that sausage rolls are one of the favourite snacks for the British. They can be found at butchers, on pub and restaurant menus, ready to eat in supermarkets or at bakeries around the country. The combination of buttery, flaky pastry and juicy, seasoned sausage meat is simple yet delicious. It’s no wonder they are so popular. Greggs, a British bakery chain, sells 130 million sausage rolls all by themselves!

The origins of this popular snack in the UK can be traced back to the Victorian era. They most likely originated following inspiration from French dishes, sich as pate en croute. These sorts of dishes are much larger and intended to be served sliced. Victorian street food vendors adopted the concept and sought to create a smaller version that could be carried and eaten by hand. This tradition has remained and grown in popularity over time.

These early variations were likely fairly simple in flavour profile. This is because they would have been intended to be inexpensive in order to be served to the working people. Nowadays, there are many varieties you can find with all sorts of herbs, spices and sausage varieties.

My Festive Sausage Roll Recipe

As a result of their convenience and tastiness, I think sausage rolls make for excellent nibbles or party food! What bigger party is there every year than Christmas! This is a time of year when there are many events with family and friends coming together, and often bringing dishes. A few years ago, I was asked to bring something savoury to such a party. This led to me creating this recipe!

I wanted to cook something that would feel decadent and special, pack in the festive flavours, but be easy to pick up and eat without creating a mess. This made sausage rolls perfect! In order to keep them festive, I make use of plenty of fresh herbs and nutmeg spices to hit those classic flavours. For the fresh herbs I like to use sage, parsley and thyme. These are all timeless flavour combinations with pork! I then add the nutmeg to add that warming, earthiness to the mixture.

To build depth, I like to add fresh onion as well. Onion and sage together are a classic pairing for use in stuffings etc. Here they give slight hints of these stuffings that are common in a Christmas roast. I also like to add garlic, but I actually prefer the tasste of drygarlic granules in this. It tastes slightly mellower, which here adds a background note rathr than a leading flavour.

Finally, I add cranberry sauce to the rolls before baking. I don’t mix this in with the sausage meat, as I do not want to add too much moisture to the meat or make it too dense. If you add it to the mix, this stickiness of the cranberry will certainly do that. To make these, I lay out the pastry then roll the sausage mix into a long cylinder and place it in the middle. I then spread a vein of cranberry sauce out along the side of the sausage meat and roll the pastry up.

Festive Pork & Cranberry Sausage Rolls

Herby, peppery pork and sweet, tangy cranberry sauce all wrapped up in flaky puff pastry. These sausage rolls are an excellent option for festive treats!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Servings: 8 people

Course: Party Food, Snack

Cuisine: British, European

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 400 g Sausage Meat
• 1 Medium Yellow Onion
• 10 g Fresh Sage
• 15 g Fresh Parsley
• 5 g Fresh Thyme
• 0.5 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 tsp Garlic Granules
• 320 g Puff Pastry
• 100 g Cranberry Sauce
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Fennell Seeds

Method

 

1. Heat your oven up to 200°C.
2. Finely dice the yellow onion and finely chop the fresh herbs.
3. In a large bowl, mix the sausage meat, herbs, onion, nutmeg and garlic granules. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix by hand until evenly incorporated.
4. Lay out your puff pastry sheet and cut down the middle lengthwise.
5. Split the sausage mix into two portions and roll each half into long cylinders. Place each one onto the middle of one of the halves of the pastry sheet.
6. Spread the cranberry sauce along the side of each of the sausage fillings, making sure it spreads evenly along the roll.
7. Fold the pastry around the sausage and cranberry sauce, allowing the edges to overlap. Use the prongs of a fork to press the edges of the pastry together and seal the roll shut.
8. Cut each roll into 8 equally sized sections. Place them onto a baking tray with a rack.
9. Crack the egg into a bowl and beat it. Brush the egg over each of the sausage rolls.
10. Sprinle 3-4 fennell seeds onto each of the sausage rolls to decorate.
11. Place the tray into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.