Festive sausage roll
A festive sausage roll with pork mince, dried cranberries and pistachio nuts is a budget-friendly dish to spoil your loved ones with Christmas aromas. I like to use pistachio nuts which are very special to me, but almonds or hazelnuts will work just fine.
Ingredients
- 70 g sourdough breadcrumbs
- 45 ml milk
- 100 g cranberry jelly
- 50 g dried cranberries
- 50 g pistachio nuts without shell or almonds, roughly chopped
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 12 g salt
- 6 grind black pepper
- 500 g pork mince
- 400 g puff pastry, defrosted
- 1 egg, beaten
- 0.5 tsp nigella seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 C.
- Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper.
- Place the breadcrumbs and milk in a large bowl that can hold all the ingredients. Wait until the milk is absorbed by the breadcrumbs.
- Mix the cranberry jelly, dried cranberries, pistachio nuts or almonds, dried thyme, salt, pepper and pork mince with the breadcrumb until well combined.
- Unroll the defrosted puff pastry and lay it out on the non stick baking paper.
- Cut a stripe of 6 cm off the short side of the pastry. I use this to cut out stars for decorating the log. Put that stripe to the side.
- Roll the mince mixture into a sausage shape, fitting the length of your pastry sheet, keeping 5 cm uncovered on each side. You need this pastry to seal the mince meat properly.
- Now brush the pastry along the edges with the beaten egg and roll the pastry over the mince meat to enclose. Repeat with the beginning and end of the roll.Make sure the mince meat is proper wrapped and sealed in the pastry.
- Most people like to have the seam at the bottom, I actually prefer it on top, to make sure that the filling doesn't ooze out.
- Cut out some stars from the remaining piece of puff pastry.
- Brush the sausage with the beaten egg, stick the stars all over the surface of the log and brush the stars with the beaten egg. I brush the stars after sticking them to the surface because I find them easier to handle that way.
- Sprinkle some nigella seeds over the stars if you use them.
- Bake the log for 40 to 45 minutes, you might have to cover the log towards the end of the cooking time to prevent the surface from burning. Leave the log 10 minutes to rest before serving it.
- You can bake the sausage roll as well in a loaf tin if you like.