Festive sausage rolls are ready ...

 

Amidst the busyness it is good to do some of the prep ahead of time. 

I think nibbles are good but something a little heartier goes down well because it is more substantial & not sweet. 

I rather like home made sausage rolls with a festive filling. I have bought in extra ready made puff & shortcrust pastry ready for a quick bake if needed. I tend to do a festive plait on Boxing day & always use ready made puff pastry. 

I bought in festive pork stuffing to use. The first was pork, apple & cranberries that I spiced up with salt, pepper, garlic & a little sweet paprika. 

The second stuffing was pork, cranberry & orange so I added some orange zest & a squeeze of fresh orange to this mixture to be made up the same as the other. Each stuffing mix was made up on their own sheet of puff pastry, making 16 small sausage rolls.

I cut the first length of rolled pastry longways - spread a thin layer of bought cranberry sauce down the middle of each half, brushed the edges all round with just water (you can use egg but I find water seals it just fine to seal the edges).  

The first spiced sausage meat was halved, then rolled in to a long sausage shape for each side. I used my hands to just nudge it in to the right long shape. 

The pastry is rolled over the sausage meat, tucking it in under the filling, then rolling the whole shape over with the rolled part underneath to give a neat shape. The water seals the pastry edges & holds the stuffing in place. 

Each half was then cut in half,  then in to quarters to make 8 in each side - 16 from one roll of pastry. 

I did 2 lots of pastry & fillings so have 32 sausage rolls ready to bake when needed. 

The ones with the pork, orange & cranberries had the tops just snipped with a scissors so I know which are which. 

These were open frozen overnight on a baking sheet so they are ready & can be cooked from frozen after being glazed with an egg / milk mixture. 

They are baked at 200c for about 20 min from frozen. 

Most of us like a savoury treat so these are perfect, served with some chutneys or a dip even.

I hope you find some time to do some baking ahead of the time. Thank you for stopping by & visiting with me. I appreciate every comment, like or share. 

Dee 🎄🧈🧑‍🍳