New Zealand Sausage Rolls
As Briana Robillard, from New Zealand, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport Maine, June 2013
Serves: 9 as appetizers, makes 27 pieces
Cooking Time: 1 hour
For the filling:
1/3 cup breadcrumbs or matzo meal
1/3 cup milk
1 lb. ground pork
1/2 scallion
1 whole egg
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
For the dough:
2 1/4 cup flour (she prefers King Arthur's light whole wheat flour, or 1 c. wheat, 1 1/4 c. white)
1/2 cup white flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, cubed into 1/4" pieces
For glazing each piece:
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1. Make the filling. Mix breadcrumbs and milk together in a small bowl. In a large bowl mix the breadcrumb/milk with ground pork, scallion, egg, sage, basil, and salt.
2. Make the dough. In a different large bowl, squeeze the light wheat flour into the butter and the butter into the flour with your hands for about five minutes until it resembles fine breadcrumbs with pea size clumps of butter. Then mix in with your ands just enough cold water (about 1/4 cup) to make the dough stick together in a damp uneven clumpy mass. Put a small handful of white flour on your work surface, and turn the dough onto that. Form the unruly mass into a disc. Cut the disc in half and set one half aside. Flatten remaining dough more or less into a shape the length of your rolling pin. Roll out, adding small handfulls of flour and spreading them on the top of the dough to keep it from sticking, until the dough is slightly less than 1/4 inch thick and about 14" wide. Trim the edges so you have a rectangle. Then cut that in half so you have two fairly long rectangles, about 6 inches wide.
3. Begin assembling the rolls.
Brush the left third (lengthwise) of both rectangles with water. Form 1/4 of the meat filling into an inch thick line down the center of the first rectangle. Form another 1/4 of the filling into a line in the center (lengthwise) of the second rectangle. Fold the wet flap of dough on top of the meat. Brush the top surface of that dough with water, and then fold the second flap over the top of the first one, pressing them gently together so they stick. Slice across each roll in 1 inch segments so you have bite-sized pieces. Grease a sheet pan, place the pieces on it.
4. Repeat the process, rolling out the reserved dough, filling it with the remaining filling, and assembling more rolls.
5. Final touch. Scramble an egg in a bowl and add in a little milk. Brush the egg mixture over each sausage roll, and bake at 350 degrees until tops are slightly golden and sausage is cooked, about 30 minutes. Let cool on cooking rack.
Serve after sheep shearing, at weddings, funerals, and pretty much any gathering.
Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2013
