Homemade Turkey Sausage Rolls are easy and delicious! Serve them as a light meal or snack, or as an appetizer at your next party.
Did you grow up eating sausage rolls? I definitely did, but they most often came from a box in the freezer department in a grocery store, a bakery, or a deli hot food department.
When I was very young, I recall my mom cooking the frozen sausage rolls (small, cocktail-sized ones), and me eating only the puff pastry and giving the sausage to one of my siblings.
Fast forward to now, I typically get them from a local bakery where they come in a larger size (maybe about 4-5 inches long) and eat one with salad as a light lunch.
After recently making a dish with frozen puff pastry, I got to thinking about what else I could make with it, and Homemade Turkey Sausage Rolls came out at the top of the list.
What are sausage rolls?
If you've never tried, or even heard of a sausage roll, don't worry - there's still time!
Sausage rolls are savory pastries in which sausage (most often pork sausage) is encased in puff pastry. They typically come in one of two sizes - larger snack-sized sausage rolls are typically 4-6 inches long, while smaller appetizer-sized rolls are only 1.5-2 inches.
Sausage rolls are common in the UK, Canada, and Australia, and are most often sold in grocery store delis and bakeries. They may be sold frozen in boxes to re-heat at home, where they're commonly served at parties and potlucks.
How do you make sausage rolls from scratch?
Well, if we're being technical, this version of sausage rolls isn't completely "from scratch" as we're getting a little bit of help from frozen puff pastry. This makes the process a lot more approachable, and possible to have warm, flaky sausage rolls on the table in under an hour.
The starting point for making sausage rolls is to make homemade sausage, which takes only minutes. I like to start with ground turkey when I make homemade sausage, but you can use ground pork if you wish. Simply mix it with panko, an egg, onion, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper, and it's good to go. If you really want to save time, you can start with store-bought bulk sausage.
Roll out your puff pastry (if needed - some come already rolled in sheets that you simply unroll) into a rectangle shape. Lay the meat down in a log on the center of the pastry, and fold the edges of the pastry over the meat, gently pinching the seam shut. Flip the whole thing over so that the seam is on the bottom.
How you're serving your turkey sausage rolls will determine how you cut them. If you plan to serve them as snacks or light meals, cut them larger - about 5-6 inches long. If you're serving them as appetizers, cut them smaller, about 2 inches. Note that the sausage rolls will shrink when you cook them, so cut them slightly larger than you want them to be when they're done.
All that's left is cutting small slits into the pastry for venting. Use a small paring knife to cut ½-1 inch slits all the way through the pastry, but be careful not to cut completely across the roll. Now brush lightly with an egg wash, and pop them into the oven.
Homemade Turkey Sausage Rolls Ingredients:
- Ground turkey: or substitute with ground pork if you wish.
- Panko
- Large eggs
- Onion
- Garlic
- Dried or fresh parsley
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Frozen puff pastry
- Milk or water
Want more appetizer recipes?
Turkey Sausage Rolls Nutrition Notes:
The nutrition information in the recipe below is for one sausage roll, if the recipe is divided into 8 pieces.
If you use ground pork instead of ground turkey in this recipe, the total and saturated fat in your sausage rolls will be slightly higher.
To make this recipe dairy-free, ensure that the puff pastry you're using is also dairy-free. Note that the Tenderflake brand pastry that I used to make this did NOT contain dairy as an ingredient, but milk was listed as a possible contaminant. Some other brands of pastry available in Canada DO contain butter.
Turkey Sausage Rolls
Equipment
- Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey
- ½ cup panko
- 2 large eggs divided
- 1 small onion minced fine
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley (or 1 Tablespoon minced fresh parsley)
- 1 teasoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 package frozen puff pastry thawed according to the directions on the package
- 1 Tablespoon milk or water
Instructions
- Prepare a baking pan by lining it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Heat oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, mix together the ground turkey, panko, one of the eggs, onion, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper until uniformly mixed (I find it's easiest to do this with my hands, but you can use a spoon if you like).
- Following the directions on the puff pastry, roll it out so that it's a long, narrow rectangle (depending on how your pastry was packaged, you may need to cut it - you want each rectangle to be about 6 inches wide).
- Spread the turkey mixture in a log along the center of the pastry, all the way to the ends. Fold each side of the pastry over the meat, then flip the whole thing over so that the seam is on the bottom.
- If you want to make snack or small meal-sized sausage rolls, cut the log into 5-6 inch pieces. If you want to make appetizer or hors d'oeuvres-sized sausage rolls, cut the log into roughly 2 inch pieces (note that the sausage rolls will shrink slightly while baking). Place the cut sausage rolls on the prepared baking sheet, at least 1 inch apart. With a paring knife, cut small slits (about ½ - 1 inch) into the puff pastry, being careful not to cut all the way across the roll.
- Lightly beat the remaining egg with the milk or water. Brush the sausage rolls with the beaten egg mixture. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Serve hot.
- Note on freezing: the sausage rolls can be assembled to the end of step 5 and then frozen. Simply thaw in the fridge, then continue with the remaining step. Alternatively, they can be fully cooked and then frozen. For best results, thaw before reheating. Re-heat in the oven at 300-350°F for 10-20 minutes. I like reheating mine in the toaster oven.
Nutrition
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