Filo Pastry Sausage Rolls

Sausage rolls but crunchy – what’s not to love?! Tasty pork sausage meat is wrapped in multiple layers of filo (phyllo) pastry and simply baked to perfection. Filo Pastry Sausage Rolls are a fun twist on a British classic recipe and well worth trying!

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I’m sure that I’m not the first person to think that a hybrid recipe of crunchy börek and classic sausage rolls was a good idea. But I hadn’t ever tried them before I started experimenting.

I first tried layering the filo pastry and then using it like I normally would when making puff pastry or shortcrust pastry sausage rolls. Making one long roll then cutting it into smaller sausage rolls.

I usually use, and always recommend using proper sausages rather than blocks of sausage meat. So it made sense to me to try wrapping each (skinned) sausage in a single sheet of filo pastry.

I honestly don’t love working with filo, especially when it involves multiple layers. But I love eating it so I wanted to create this recipe that involved no stress and all the flavour and glorious crunch. I think I managed or I wouldn’t be writing this right now.

How to Serve Filo Sausage Rolls

Any food in this cigar type shape is ripe for dunking. Anything from Fresh Fig Chutney to Cranberry Sauce is fair game. And of course there are the classic tomato and brown sauces too. I highly recommend trying Caesar Dressing as a dipping sauce. I can’t get enough of it.

I’ll always prefer a warm sausage roll to a cold sausage roll. But don’t take that to mean that I don’t love them cold. I just really love them warm. It’ll depend on how you’re serving these for what temperature you go for. For something like a picnic or buffet, cold will be easier.

Make Phyllo Sausage Rolls into a Feast

I truly believe that you can make any dish into a proper feast! Whether thats a feast for one after work on a Tuesday, a casual feast for four on a Friday evening or a feast for 12 for a special occasion!

Sausage rolls are the ultimate party food. They’re a buffet classic in the UK along with other stalwarts like Scotch Eggs, Quiche Lorraine and Chicken Satay Skewers.

Don’t forget to add some sweet options like a plate of Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies, slices of Everything Chocolate Brownies and a pile of fresh Scones. And certainly don’t forget the Strawberry Jam and clotted cream to serve.

To make filo sausage rolls into more of a substantial lunch or dinner, I love to serve them with Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes or Roasted Rosemary Potato Cubes and some fun veg like Garlic Mushrooms and Maple Cherry Tomatoes. Or a hearty helping of baked beans and a fried egg or two – delicious!

Don’t forget to head over to my Feast Collection pages to find all of my tips and tricks to help you host a fun and stress-free feast. Plus remember to check out my recipe index to create your own awesome Feast!

Ingredients for Filo Pastry Sausage Rolls

Let me summarise this for you because things get confusing.

What you really need to know is that you need 1 regular 60g/2oz sausage per 1 large (UK) or 2 small (US) sheets of filo/phyllo pastry. And some melted butter.

And you can make as many or as few sausage rolls as you like.

Filo Pastry

I sometimes make my own Puff Pastry but I’m not bonkers enough to make filo! So seriously, I fully expect you to buy filo sheets. They’re readily available in all supermarkets with the other ready rolled pastries – usually in the chiller section.

Weirdly, filo pastry sheets are sold differently in the UK and US.

In the UK, the most common brand Jus-Rol sells 270g boxes with 7 sheets of filo.

In the US, the 1lb packages of phyllo come with 24 sheets which are half the size of UK sheets. So if you are using US sheets or you are in another country with small sheets of pastry, you will want to double up. If you select cups on the recipe card, I’ve made this change for you.

I made 8 sausage rolls when creating this recipe. There are usually 8 sausages in a lb (450g). And I had 8 sheets of UK sized filo. So my non jus-roll brand pack of pastry must have contained 8 sheets. They’re all going to be a little different. If you’re confused – just refer back to my intro to this section.

Sausages

As always I like to buy great quality pork sausages – usually Lincolnshire sausages with a sage twang. But just get your favourite. Or even mix and match. Because who doesn’t love a bit of sausage roulette.

For this recipe it really is better to buy proper sausages and carefully skin them. That way you don’t need to do anything else with the meat. It is already the perfect shape for rolling in the pastry.

Sausages do of course vary in size depending where you buy them from. The sausages I used were between 50g and 60g each (2oz) each. I’d say this is a fairly standard size thick sausage in the UK. I would not recommend using chipolatas or cocktail sausages for this recipe unless you intend to halve the filo sheets.

Butter

Unlike puff pastry which includes layers of butter within the dough or shortcrust pastry, filo pastry contains very little fat. This means that we need to add it as part of the assembly process.

Filo pastry also benefits from seasoning so I use melted salted butter to add those layers of fat.

If you refuse the flavour of delicious salted butter, please add a pinch of sea salt to the unsalted butter you are using.

Do be quite generous with the butter. If you try to be frugal, the finished sausage rolls can be a bit dry.

Be Flexible

I always say with my sausage roll recipes that you can customise the recipe to your hearts content. And these filo sausage rolls are no different.

One of the favourite things I’ve tried is making a pigs in blankets version. I simply wrapped a slice of steaky bacon around each skinned sausage and then carried on as normal. Perfection!

And then my other go-to is to add some kind of sauce or chutney. Fresh fig chutney is my current obsession and I love to add cranberry sauce – especially around Christmas.

A layer of caramelised onions is also a delicious extra.

Make it Vegetarian or Vegan

To make Vegetarian Filo Pastry Sausage Rolls simply use a vegetarian sausage. There are many to choose from nowadays.

To make Vegan Filo Pastry Sausage Rolls you will need to use a plant based sausage. My preferred vegan option is Richmond sausages – I’ve written about this in more detail in my vegan sausage roll with puff pastry recipe.

You will also need to use a dairy-free butter substitute. Try to pick something trying to be buttery in flavour so you don’t end up with bland pastry and rolls.

Make it Allergy Friendly

This recipe is free from egg and nuts.

Gluten Free Filo Sausage Rolls: Gluten free filo pastry does seem to be quite hard to come by.

I also looked for gluten-free spring roll wrappers (pancakes roll/egg roll) but the only gf versions I could find are the hard rice ones that need soaking. I’m not a huge fan of baking those and I don’t think they’ll work well. They are however amazing to make Vietnamese Summer Rolls.

I think I’d actually recommend using another type of pastry for a better gf sausage roll.

Dairy Free Filo Sausage Rolls: Dairy-free is much easier to achieve. Most filo pastry is already dairy free- but do check the label to be sure. So then it is simply a case of using a dairy-free buttery butter substitute.

Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.

Equipment Notes for Sausage Rolls with Filo Pastry

Despite looking a bit fancy, these sausage rolls are actually really simple to make with very little equipment.

There is rarely a recipe where I don’t point out the importance of having a good sharp knife. In this case its useful for piercing the sausage skins so they come off nice and easily.

A silicone pastry brush is my preferred way to brush the butter over the pastry. You can use a more traditional pastry brush with hair. Just make sure that you don’t lose any of the hairs as you go. I have certainly been known to use a new and clean paintbrush to speed up the job!

A comprehensive list of the equipment used to make this recipe is included in the main recipe card below. Click on any item to see an example. There are no hard and fast rules so many items can be sensibly substituted to achieve the same results.

Get Ahead

This is a great recipe to prepare ahead of time. You can make them and store covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. There is a caveat to this – your sausage still need to be “in date” or likely to be safe by the time they are cooked.

You can bake straight from chilled.

You can also get much further ahead by freezing the made up sausage rolls. The best way to do that is to freeze them on a tray then move them to a bag or container when they are fully frozen. If you jump straight to the bag stage, they will likely stick together.

You can cook straight from frozen. Knock down the oven temperature by 10c/50f and bake for another 15 minutes. But I do actually prefer to allow them to thaw before baking.

Leftover Filo Pastry Sausage Rolls

Leftovers can be snacked on for several days after baking. Store covered in the fridge. They will lose some of their crunch.

To reheat leftovers, you can use the microwave – again this will not keep them crunchy. So you can also heat them through in the oven. My favourite way is to heat them in my airfryer.

Filo Pastry Sausage Roll Tips

Make sure to keep the filo pastry sheets you are not working on covered with a damp cloth. Once they start to dry out, they are a nightmare to work with.

It is for this reason that you want to make one roll at a time. I will always batch work if I can but this isn’t the time.

Be generous with the butter. No one wants a dry sausage roll.

Try to keep the pastry wrapped nice and tight to the sausage. You don’t want the pastry to be baggy or it’ll catch and burn. Plus it’ll be a pain to eat.

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?

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The Recipe

Filo Pastry Sausage Rolls Recipe

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Sausage rolls but crunchy – what's not to love?! Tasty pork sausage meat is wrapped in multiple layers of filo (phyllo) pastry and simply baked to perfection. Filo Pastry Sausage Rolls are a fun twist on a British classic recipe and well worth trying!

5 from 12 votes

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KEEP SCREEN ON

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Servings 8 rolls

Author Chloe

Equipment

• Mixing Bowl – Extra Small
• Sharp Knife – Large
• Silicone Pastry Brush
• Baking Tray – Large
• Baking Parchment
• Microwave (or Small Saucepan)

Ingredients

 

MetricUSA Measurements

 

0.5x1x2x4x

• 450 g Pork Sausages - 450g > 8 sausages
• 50 g Salted Butter
• 8 Filo Pastry Sheets (Phyllo)

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 200c fan | 200c | 390c or equivalent.
• Carefully skin 450g Pork Sausages using a sharp knife to cut a slit in the skin. Keep the sausages whole and set aside.
  
• Melt 50g Salted Butter in a small bowl in the microwave or in a small pan on the hob.
  
• Separate 1 sheet of Filo Pastry and cover the remainder to keep it from drying out. Place the sheet on a flat surface. Use a pastry brush to cover the pastry in a thin layer of the melted butter.

  Note – If using smaller US phyllo pastry sheets, use 2 sheets per roll. Butter both then lay one on top of the other.
  
• Lay one of the skinned sausages along the shortest edge of the pastry sheet. Leave around a 2cm/1inch gap from the edge.
  
• Fold one long side of the pastry towards the centre.

  You will see from the images that it is a good idea for the pastry to be angled a little more inwards at the opposite end to where the sausage is.
  
• Repeat with the opposite side.
  
• Roll the sausage in the pastry until there is only a little bit of pastry still showing.
  
• Add a little more melted butter and finish the roll. This will help the pastry to stick.
  
• Place the roll on a lined baking sheet then repeat with the remaining 7 sausages and pastry.
  
• Brush the outside of the rolls generously with the melted butter. If you run out, just melt a little bit more to finish the job.
  
• Bake for 20 minutes until light golden brown. They may need slightly longer depending on your oven. Use your eyes and judgement. If your oven does not cook evenly, turn the tray midway through cooking.
  
• Move to a cooling rack and try to let them cool a bit before serving. Good luck with that!
  

Nutrition (Approx)

Calories: 317kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 54mg | Sodium: 565mg | Potassium: 166mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 198IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 2mg

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