Goats cheese & onion sausage rolls

I’ve actually never made sausage rolls before, they always seemed like so much effort, which I guess they are. I mean, you have to buy some puff pasty and wrap sausages in it… Okay so not hard at all. That being said, I wanted to jazz up my sausage rolls – not by actually making my own veggie sausages of course (ain’t nobody got time for that) but I thought I could just throw some caramelised onions and goats cheese at the problem? Hey, don’t be like that, have you ever tried making your own veggie sausages? Of course you haven’t… Oh you have? Well you’re weird and clearly have too much time on your hands.
Anyway, for those of you who have lives, just buy a pack of your favourite veggie sausages and enjoy them rolled up with sweet sticky onions, soft creamy goats cheese and buttery puff pastry. Scrummy.

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Goats cheese & caramelised onion mini sausage rolls
Makes 18 / Hands on time 40 mins / Total time 1 hr / V
You’ll need: One large or two baking trays and a couple of sheets of baking paper
6 Cauldron Cumberland vegetarian sausages
320g puff pastry, I use Jus-Rol
125g vegetarian soft goats cheese
1 egg, beaten
For the caramelised onions
Knob of unsalted butter
1 large red onion, peeled and sliced
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Dijon mustard to serve (optional)

TIP: If you can’t be bothered to make your own caramelised onions, shop bought onion chutney will work just as well and shave off 25 minutes of the prep time.

Method
1. Start by making the caramelised onions. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat and melt a generous knob of butter. Add the sliced onions and cook for 10-15 minutes or until softened, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Once soft, add the sugar and the balsamic vinegar and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes. Take off the heat and put the onions to one side.
2. Preheat an oven to 200°C/180°fan/400F/gas mark 6. Roll out your puff pastry into a large rectangle shape (long enough to fit three sausages top to toe (see pic below). Place three sausages on the left side and the other three on the right, leaving plenty of room around them for filling. Using a sharp knife cut down the centre of the pastry and then brush the inside edge of each strip with beaten egg.
3. Spoon an even amount of caramelised onions (or shop bought onion chutney) on the inside edge of the sausages, followed by an even-ish layer of goats cheese (don’t worry about being too perfect, messy sausage rolls taste excellent).
4. So here’s the slightly tricky part. Take the inside edge (the inside you brushed with egg) fold it over the filling and the sausages and secure it to the pastry on the other side by squashing it down with your fingers. It will leave quite a messy seem, so roll your giant sausage roll over so that the seem is now on the bottom. Repeat with the other half, leaving you with two giant sausage rolls.
5. Score each giant sausage roll with a sharp knife creating a mini baguette effect and then divide each sausage roll into 9 (this is easier than it looks, you know there are three sausages in each roll, so before diving them up, feel for each sausage with your fingers and then focus on cutting each sausage into three). Don’t worry if they look a little squished and man-handled, they’re going to puff up beautifully in the oven. Also, if some of your filling spills out, just push it back in as best you can, doesn’t matter if they leak a little. Repeat this process with the other giant sausage roll until you have 18 mini rolls. (If you’re feeling frisky, why not try baking the two giant sausage rolls intact? I haven’t done it but it sounds like a pretty great idea if you ask me… Just a thought).
6. Anyway, brush each mini sausage roll with more beaten egg and transfer them to a couple of lined baking trays. Pop them in the oven for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown. Once cooked, leave them to cool for 5 minutes on the baking trays before transferring them to a cooling rack. Leave to cool or eat warm with a dap of Dijon mustard.

If you’ve had a go at making any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you. Follow me now @corrieheale and tag your recipe pictures using #corriesrabbitfood.