These Suet Pastry Sausage Rolls are slightly non-traditional lovechild of two true British classic recipes; suet pastry and sausage rolls! The pastry is crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside with the pork sausage meat packing a flavour punch. Your only question will be why haven’t you made them before?!
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I am sure that I’m not the first person to ever think of making sausage rolls with suet pastry but I’ve certainly never had one, thought to make them or heard of them before. Suet pastry used to be far more common than it is now so I’m sure it was used to make various snacky rolls throughout the ages.
Suet pastry has a totally different texture to shortcrust and puff pasty. It bakes up to have a lovely crispy outside. And the inside stays kind of soft and a little bit fluffy. Suet pastry doesn’t form flakes and layers like puff and isn’t short and crumble like shortcrust. It is unique in that it is a little fluffy and soft. And totally delicious.
I have published the recipe for the suet pastry separately with much more information about what suet is, which type you should buy and how to treat the pastry etc. The quantity the recipe makes is exactly the same quantity that you’ll need to make this recipe. If you change the serving size for the sausage rolls, just make sure to change the suet pastry recipe by the same amount.
Traditional Suet Pastry Recipe
How to Serve Suet Sausage Rolls
As to what to serve them with, the options are really endless. Eat them just on their own or dipped in your favourite sauce for a quick snack – I like ketchup!
Or you can add them to a buffet or snack board. I’ve opted to serve mine as part of a ploughman’s style platter. I’ve included a good strong cheddar, homecooked gammon ham, a light salad, some crunchy vegetable crisps and of course, a good dollop of my homemade chutney.
Don’t miss making them into a fully fledged meal. My favourite sausage roll dinner includes crunchy chips, baked beans and perhaps some buttery sliced mushrooms on the side.
Ingredients
Suet Pastry
You can’t buy suet pastry (that I’m aware of) but it is extremely easy to make. other than just a minute or two kneading to bring it together, there is no faffing; no chilling, no rolling and folding, no layering etc etc. You don’t even need to rub the fat into the flour and you don’t need to get out a food processor etc.
You’ll find my recipe linked in my recipe card. I’ll be continuing to publish more recipes using suet pastry as time goes on so keep an eye out for those!
Sausage Meat
As with all my sausage roll and recipes that use sausage meat, I recommend buying your favourite sausages and then removing the sausage meat from the skin. Unless you have an excellent butcher or other great source of sausage meat, this is the best way to get a high quality product.
You can also choose your preferred flavourings – I personally love a sagey lincolnshire sausage. Or a pork and caramelised red onion option if I’m feeling fancy.
If you’re in the US, I understand that the best option for you is to buy Jimmy Dean’s breakfast sausage – the kind that comes in a tube shape. This is most similar to British sausage meat and is quite like lincolnshire sausage with it’s sage flavouring.
Be Flexible
It is really easy to plus up sausage rolls, no matter what type of pastry or sausage meat you’re using.
You can add your favourite condiment before rolling the pastry. Keep it very simple with tomato ketchups, spice things up with something like piccalilli or a hot mustard or add a good chutney. I love adding my favourite plum and apple chutney. To pretty much everything actually.
You can also add additional herbs, spices or seasoning to your sausage meat. Or mix in something flavour packed like spicy nduja or chorizo. You can also sprinkle in some cheese and add some to the top after you’ve added the egg wash too.
I’ve not sprinkled herbs or sesame seeds etc onto the top of these rolls as I often do. Feel free to give them a shake of something. Just make sure to do this after you’ve brushed them with egg so it sticks.
Vegetarian or Vegan Suet Sausage Rolls
I’ve talked fairly extensively in my suet pastry post about how to make the pastry vegetarian or vegan suitable. Vegetarian suet is extremely common (I even use it when making meat dishes) so this isn’t especially difficult.
As for the filling, you can of course substitute the sausage meat for a vegetarian or vegan alternative. There are many available now – I used Richmond meatless in my Greggs style vegan sausage roll recipe so I know this works well.
If you don’t want to use a meat substitute, you could make cheese and onion rolls but using suet pastry instead of the puff pastry.
Make Allergy Friendly Suet Sausage Rolls
This recipe is free from nuts.
I don’t want to repeat myself so I’ll again direct you to my suet pastry recipe page for information on how to make the pastry gluten or dairy free. It contains no egg or nuts.
Egg Free Suet Sausage Rolls: To keep the rolls egg free, you’ll need to use something to stick the pastry to it’s self and glaze it. You can use double cream or milk for this. Use a plant-based option if needed. You won’t get the same shine as if you use egg but it won’t really affect the taste.
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 Suet Pastry Rolls
You don’t need any fancy equipment at all to make the pastry or the sausage rolls. Just some basics like a rolling pin and a baking tray.
If you don’t actually have a proper rolling pin, you can get away with using something else cylindrical like a roll of cling film or a bottle of wine in a pinch.
My baking tray has ridiculously effective non-stick so I haven’t used baking paper to line it. But you should if you are at all.
The other really useful thing to have is a pastry brush to apply the egg to the pastry. I prefer the silicone kind and they are much easier to clean and you don’t run the risk of losing a hair into the food.
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
Suet pastry can be made and stored in the fridge for a couple of days. You will want to allow it to come towards room temperature before trying to roll it out otherwise you will really struggle.
The fully prepared and ready to bake sausage rolls can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days and then baked as needed. But don’t keep the pastry and then keep the sausage rolls because then the pastry really has been made and stored for too long overall.
You can also freeze the prepared rolls. It is best to do this by free freezing them. Space them out on a tray and put that in the freezer until fully frozen. Then move them to a bag or air-tight container for longer term storage.
You can cook the sausage rolls from frozen, reduce the temperature a little and cook for a few minutes longer to ensure that they’re fully cooked in the middle.
Leftover Sausage Rolls
Leftover cooked sausage rolls can be stored in the fridge for a good 3 to 4 days. They can also be frozen. As I’ve mentioned above, I recommend heating them before. You can do this in the microwave although the pastry will remain on the softer side.
Alternatively you can put them in the oven, or my preferred method is to put them in the air fryer. This will heat them through nicely and re-crisp them with very little effort in around 5 minutes.
Suet Pastry Sausage Rolls Tips
If you’re finding the pastry a little tough to roll, just leave it be for a couple of minutes. This will allow it to relax and it’ll spring back on you less.
Dip your hands in some cold water before handling the sausage meat. This will stop it sticking to you.
I’ve portioned these rolls until into 16 smallish snack sixed rolls. You can cut them however you prefer, from 4 really large ones to 36 mini ones. Have a look at my mini sausage rolls recipes for very small ones as I cut the pastry rectangle into 3 rather than 2.
Because of the raising agent in the suet pastry, they will puff up a bit when baked. So make sure you give them a little space when putting them on the baking tray.
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?
Still Have Questions?
Simple! Just contact me and I will do my best to help as quickly as I am able. Head over to my Contact Me page, any of my social media channels or post a comment at the bottom of this page and I’ll see what I can do.
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More Sausage Roll Recipes
You can now find all of my sausage roll recipes in one place. Plus I’ve included a few extra bonus sausage based recipes too!
The Recipe
Suet Pastry Sausage Rolls Recipe
Equipment
- Baking Parchment if required
Ingredients
- 450 g Suet Pastry
- 450 g Pork Sausage Meat
- 1 Egg
- Flour - for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200c fan | 220c | 390f or equivalent.
- Place 450g Suet Pastry out on a floured surface. Use the sides of your hands to make it into a square rather than round shape.
- Gently roll the pastry out. You are aiming for a rectangle around 25x35cm/10"x14".
- Flip the pastry as you roll and use more flour if needed to stop it sticking to the board. Use the sides of you hands to push the sides of the pastry inwards to keep the pastry in a rectangle.
- If you find the pastry is springing back as you roll, let it sit for a minute or two to rest and then go back to it.
- Cut the sheet into half lengthways with a sharp knife.
- Skin enough sausages to get 450g Sausage Meat. Or if using ready prepared sausage meat, split it into two and form each half into a long sausage.
- Beat 1 Egg in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to cover one edge of the pastry on each strip. I like to go for the inner edges so they lay over the less neater edge.
- Place the sausage meat around ⅔ of the way along each pastry strip. Make sure it reaches from end to end. You can mould the sausage meat into the right shape. Make sure to press the end of one sausage into the next if you are using skinned sausages.
- Start to roll the pastry around the sausage meat starting with the unwashed smaller. Keep the pastry nice and tight to the sausage meat.
- Continue to roll until the meat is totally sealed. Wet your finger a little and gently press along with pastry seam – this will allow the pastry to meld together and reduce the likelihood of the pastry coming apart as it cooks.
- Repeat with the second roll and place them both seam side down on the board.
- Use the same sharp knife to cut the end off of each roll to neaten it up if needed. Cut each roll in half, half again and then half again. Use the knife to saw rather than press down or you will squash the rolls.
- Move each roll to a lined baking tray, seam side down. Make sure the rolls each have ample room to expand.
- Generously egg wash the top and sides of each sausage roll. Make sure to not wash the exposed ends or sausage meat.
- 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.
- Try to let them cool a bit before serving warm or allow to cool thoroughly and store until needed.
Cat says
I’d have never thought to make sausage rolls using suet pastry but they’re bloomin’ delicious! What a lovely change.
Lesley says
I love suet pastry but never thought to use for sausage rolls. I baked these at the weekend and was delighted with the results.