Sausage Rolls made easy

 

500-600 gr. sausage meat (I used a combination of hot Italian pork sausage and mild sausage)

1/4 cup feta cheese (crumbled)

fresh ground pepper to taste (this recipe does not need salt because of the feta cheese)

2 tsp. herb de provence 

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

14 oz. box Puff Pastry - butter puff pastry can be bought in the freezer section of your grocery store 

4-5 tbsp. all purpose flour (for rolling out the pastry)

1 egg + tblsp. water (for egg wash)

Thaw frozen puff pastry in the fridge (not a room temp).

Combine the sausage meat, cheese and dry ingredients in a large bowl.  With clean hands combine all the ingredients until well mixed.

Flour your work counter and then unwrap the puff pastry and place on the floured counter.

With a rolling pin, roll out pastry so that it is thinner but not too thin.

Cut the pastry in half length wise so that you have 2 rectangles to place the sausage meat on. 

Divide the sausage meat in 2 parts.

Flour the counter again and roll out the sausage meat with your hands so it looks like a log. Place the sausage logs onto the puff pastry rectangles. Egg wash the outside edges (as shown below). 

Close up the pastry (see pic below) and pinch the edges. Cut off any excess not needed.

Egg wash the top of the log. 

The easiest way to cut these sausage rolls is to freeze them first as a whole log.

Take out of freezer and semi thaw.  Cut into 1 inch  bite size pieces. With scissors cut a vent in the top of each piece as is demonstrated below.

Place sausage roll pieces onto a parchment lined baking tray.

Bake at 400° for 20 - 30 minutes depending on your oven.  Remove from the parchment so that the sausage rolls do not reabsorb the grease.

Cool down to store in the fridge or serve hot.  This is an awesome appetizer and is a real crowd pleaser.