Sausage Rolls - "We can can get heavenly breakfast foraging in the larder, then a real breakfast when we get in." - Kay Harker

Box of Delights . . . Perhaps the paragon of British children's fantasy novels. I'm sure many will prefer The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, but none can compare to the poetic chaotic beauty and magical goose pimples I experience when reading the Box of Delights. I am not posting here a food item specifically referred to in the book, however as fan of the book I am also a fan of the BBC 80's production despite it lacking many a magic scene due to a low budget. In one of my favorite scenes Kay Harker and his friend Peter sneak into a larder to have a secret breakfast; in this scene it would appear they are eating sausage rolls, jam tarts, and lemonade. However in the book they eat ham on bread with a blob of butter, mince pies, and cream. Here I provide sausage rolls since they are my favorite thing that the Brits ever invented. I just about subsisted on them when vacationing in the U.K. with my family. That and curry.


Sausage Rolls

The Sausage Meat

1 Pound of good quality unseasoned pork sausage meat
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp tsp allspice
A sprinkle of cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp mixed herbs (any kind you like, sometimes if I'm feeling lazy I just use poultry seasoning)

Pop everything into a bowl and mix it all up good with your hands till well combined. Leave in the fridge for a good while to let the flavors fully infuse into the sausage meat. This is a good spicy sausage meat that you can use for anything british - Pork pies, scotch eggs, sausage rolls, what have you.

The Rough Puff Pastry

8 ounce of flour

1/2 tsp of salt

6 ounces of butter

About 6 TBS of ice water

The juice of 1/4 of a Lime

or Lemon

Cut up the butter into small blocks, like the size of a dice, maybe slightly larger. Pop these onto plate and leave in the fridge to chill up a bit. Stir the flour and salt together into a chilled

bowl. Pop in the butter. Toss with the flour Add a bit of the water and all of the lime/lemon juice mixing with your hands as you do. Keeping adding and working in the ice water till it turns into a soft pliable

dough. Pop onto a very lightly floured board. Marble is ideal, but not necessary. Roll out into a long rectangle always just rolling back then lifting the pin up and rolling forward. Once rolled out mark the pastry into thirds from top to bottom. Fold the bottom away from you making sure to keep a pocket of

air within and pr

ess it down along the second mark line. Bring the top third down tow

ards you and leaving again a pocket of air and press lightly along the bottom of the pastry. Turn 90 degrees and roll into a long rectangle again. Repeat the folding and rolling at least once or twice more. Ending at the folding up and down part and putting the block of pastry into the fridge for a good 15 minute rest. Repeat this whole thing including the resting time twice more. Then one more time and let rest as long as you can, but 30 minutes is just fine. Now it is ready to roll out and use for wha

tever you like. Makes a good lid for a meat pie (just make sure the filling is cooled down).


Constructing the sausage rolls:

Roll the prepared pastry out as thin as you can. A long wide rectangle is best. Now take out the prepared sausage and shape into longish fat snakes. Lay this sausage at the edge of the rectangle of pastry and then start to roll until all the sausage is completely covered with the pastry.



Get them all rolled up and sealed nicely with a bit of milk. Now take these snakes and slice them into roughly two inches in length. Pop these onto a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and lay this into a large freeze that can hold the baking sheet. Once frozen pop into a large plastic bag and leave in the freezer. Take out and thaw as needed. Create slanted slashes atop the rolls. Put into a 425 degree oven for roughly 15 minutes. Longer of the sausage is very fatty.