Giant Ultimate Sausage Roll

Introduction & method

You might call this epic sausage roll a poor man's beef wellington - it's a big fat roll of sausage meat wrapped in pastry. It looks and tastes fantastic. It's made for sharing and could easily replace a big roasted hunk of meat in a traditional Brit Sunday dinner.

Make the Pastry

I love making pastry, but if you're scared or think you don't have the time you can buy a pack from the shops. I'm using a savoury shortcrust pastry because I'm not crazy about flaky or puff and the fancy lattice decoration won't work with those types of pastry. Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Chop the cold butter into small cubes and rub them into the flour with your fingertips. Keep on going until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Now make a well in the centre, crack the egg into it and mix it in with a spatula or spoon. Gradually add the water and mix it in until you have a ball of dough that leaves the bowl clean. Wrap it in plastic film and pop it in the fridge to rest for half an hour.

Make the Filling

You have several options for the filling: you can buy good-quality Cumberland sausage and remove the skin, or you can buy ready-made sausagemeat (although it tends to be quite low quality), or you can make your own according to my Cumberland sausage recipe. Shape it into a log about 23cm (9 inches) long and 7cm (3 inches) diameter. Wrap it tightly in plastic film and twizzle the ends. Stand the roll up and press the ends to make them square, not rounded. Wrap the roll 1 or 2 more times and put it in the fridge.

Make the Sausage Roll

Lightly flour your worktop and roll out about two-thirds of the dough. You need a rectangle that's slightly longer than the roll of filling and wide enough to fit around the roll once with a 1cm (half an inch) overlap. It should be 3-4mm (just under a quarter inch) thick. Trim the edges so they are perfectly straight, then unwrap the filling and place it about 5cm (2 inches) from one of the long edges. Raise the pastry up and roll it over the filling. Moisten the far edge with water then roll the whole thing forward so that the seam is at the top. Work it with your finger to smooth it out and make it disappear.
Now we need to make some end caps, so roll out a bit of dough and cut 2 circles with a 7½cm (3 inch) cutter. Moisten the edges and place them inside the open ends of the roll. Squeeze the pastry of the cap to the end of the roll and do some decorative crimping if you want. Beat 2 egg yolks together with a teaspoon of water and paint the roll all over. Try to get the glaze as thin as you can. Put the roll in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

Wrap it in a Lattice

This stage is completely optional, and you'll need a piece of special equipment for it, a lattice roller. You can get them here (affiliate link): lattice rollers on Amazon. Roll out the remaining pastry into a rectangle that's 2cm (an inch) longer than the roll and a bit wider than the lattice roller. Place the edge of your hand on the narrow edge of the pastry nearest you. Press the roller into the pastry near your hand and roll it away from you. The business with the hands is because the pastry will want to wrap itself around the roller if you don't hold it down. Apply as much pressure as you can when rolling so that the cuts go all the way through. You might still need to open up some of the cuts with a paring knife. Cut off the solid strip on the short edge that you held it down with and gently tease a lattice open. Make up some eggwash with the 2 egg whites and any remaining egg yolk. Paint the lattice with this. Get the roll out of the fridge and place it on a sheet of greaseproof paper. Now, the tricky part, stretch the lattice over the sausage roll. Open it out and wiggle it so the lines are straight. Cut off any excess at the bottom.

Bake the Sausage Roll

Heat your oven to 180°C (356°F) for a fan/convection oven, 200°C (392°F) conventional, gas 6. Place the sausage roll and baking paper on a baking sheet and put in the oven for 40-50 minutes until golden brown. Turn the roll round halfway through to get an even bake.

When baked, allow to cool a bit, then cut off some slices. You can eat this hot or cold.

The video above is from the Keef Cooks YouTube channel. Click here to see the video recipe of Giant Ultimate Sausage Roll on YouTube.

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Ingredients & Info

PASTRY

250 grams plain (all-purpose) flour

125 grams butter

60 ml water

1 egg

1 tsp salt

FILLING

700 grams sausagemeat

PLUS

2 eggs separated for glazing and eggwash.

Serves about 10
Prep time: 15 minutes.
Resting time: 1 hour.
Cooking time: 50 minutes.
Total time: 2 hours 5 minutes.

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