Spooky Mummy Sausage Rolls (Wheat Free)

 

Sometimes I like to take a little break from sweet things, and like to dabble in the world of savoury treats! Now, a lot of people will be looking at this photograph and think Oh God, this needs puff pastry, which is super fiddly, but fear not: this uses rough puff pastry, which is a much simpler version of the recipe. This way you get the best of both worlds: the delicious flakiness of puff pastry, but the simplicity of shortcrust pastry.

I used ketchup to make the eyes, but you could also use brown sauce, or mayonnaise. Or, you could even use something like sesame seeds.

These little guys will be starring in my upcoming video, Sweetie Pie Throws a Party!, airing next week....

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DIFFICULTY

Requires mixing, rolling out, and cutting shapes

TIME

About 3 hours

RECIPE RATING

Intermediate

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INGREDIMENTS

Makes 8 or 10 sausage rolls

8 ounces (225 grammes) white spelt flour, cold

Salt and pepper

3 ounces (85 grammes) butter, very cold, cut into cubes

3 ounces (85 grammes) white vegetable fat, cold, cut into cubes

4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres) cold water

8 ounces (225 grammes) sausage meat, for a vegetarian option use prepared sage and onion stuffing

Eggwash, which is egg beaten with a little water

Ketchup, to decorate

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FREE FROM

Nuts, wheat, refined sugar

CONTAINS

Spelt, dairy, eggs, meat

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METHOD

• In a mixing bowl, season the flour with a little salt and pepper. Add in the butter and fat, and break up with your fingers until you have a very coarse mixture with big chunks of butter and fat: they could be about the size of peas.
• Using a knife, add in the water a bit at a time and mix through gently. You might not need all the water, so only add about a tablespoon at a time. The mixture will be very rough and shaggy, with dry and wet parts and big chunks of fat. This is necessary.
• Turn out onto a floured work surface, and begin the turning and folding process: roll the mixture out to about half an inch (1 centimetre) thick, then fold up into third like a letter, then turn through 90 degress. Repeat this process once more, then wrap up and pop in the freezer for 10 minutes. This will be quite difficult at first because the mixture is a mess, but don't stop believing!
• Remove from the freezer, and do two more folds and turns. Wrap up again, and either pop back in the freezer for another 10 minutes if you want to do another two folds and turns; or, pop into the fridge for about 45 minutes if you want to use it to make the sausage rolls.
• Roll the pastry out to about a quarter inch (4 or 5 millimetres) thick and cut into 8 (or 10) squares. Visualise each square divided into thirds, and fill the middle third with an eighth (or tenth) of your desired filling, meat or stuffing mix.
• Follow the instructions below to braid the squares, but leave a little gap to show the faces. Place the squares on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 20 minutes in the fridge.

• Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, Gas Mk.6), brush each roll with a little egg wash, sprinkle with coarse salt and black pepper if you like, and then bake the sausage rolls for 20 minutes.
• Once baked, allow to cool on the tray for about 5 minutes to make them easier to remove. Serve hot or cold, using ketchup to make glowing eyes.

STORAGE

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days only.

Sausage Rolls (Wheat Free)

For the afternoon tea party this month, I tried making something that I've never ever done before: puff pastry! I decided to use the puff pastry to make some delicious sausage rolls.

Now, sausage rolls made with normal shortcrust pastry are also delicious, but I thought I'd challenge myself. The idea of a picnic conjures up sausage rolls and pork pies in my mind (I knew there was Englishness hiding in there somewhere), so I decided to use it as an opportunity to try something new.

Puff pastry, admittedly, is a little time consuming and fussy. Traditionally, you make a shortcrust pastry, saving some of the butter, and then you sandwich the pastry with the butter, folding and re-rolling repeatedly to make thousands of layers of pastry and butter. This makes it puff and go super flaky on cooking in an extremely hot oven. The only challenge is that everything has to be ice cold, meaning that between each step you have to chill the dough, then fold and re-roll, then chill, and so forth. It takes forever.

So, some enterprising soul somewhere in history came up with rough puff pastry, which is a little bit of a cheat. You use a traditional shortcrust pastry recipe but you prepare it differently. You only rub the flour in halfway, and only mix in the water half way, and then tip it all out on the surface to begin your rolling and folding, freezing for 15 minutes after every third turn and roll. Of course, it's very messy to start with because it's crumbly and uneven, but as you progress it sorts itself out.

Now, I'm not going to outline the process in my recipe, I am, however, going to link you to a great video that shows it in good detail. I've linked it so that it starts where the method is explained, because I use slightly different ingredients.

So, let's get started!

INGREDIMENTS

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) very cold butter, cubed
• 2 to 3 fluid ounces (60 to 90 millilitres) cold water
• Generous pinch of salt
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) sausages of your choice
• Milk for glazing and sticking

METHOD

• Make the pastry using the flour, butter, salt, and water following the method in this video. The pastry needs about 90 minutes to 2 hours to make, so give yourself plenty of time.
• Preheat your oven to 220°C (450°F, Gas Mk.7).
• Skin the sausages and place the meat into a bowl. Mix it with about 2 teaspoons of water to make a manageable paste.
• Flour you work surface and roll the pastry into a long oblong about 1/4 inch in thickness, making the short end about 5 inches (12 centimetres) wide. The length of the oblong will depend on a few things, but make sure the width and thickness are right.
• Brush the pastry with milk and then put the sausage meat in an even line, spanning the length of the oblong.
• Fold the pastry over the meat, and crimp with a fork to make a big sausage roll. Cut the sausage roll into 20 little pieces, or 16 larger pieces is you want bigger rolls. 
• Place the rolls on an ungreased baking sheet and brush them with some milk for a nice gold brown finish. Place in the centre of the very hot preheated oven.
• Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown and puffed. Serve rolls straight from the oven, or allow to cool on a wire rack.

Of course, sausage rolls are very, very high in fat, so enjoy sparingly!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog due to going abroad