How do you improve on the great British sausage roll? Add a crumbling of Stilton!
Makes: 8
- 1kg finely minced pork, ideally a mixture of shoulder and belly
- 75g fresh white breadcrumbs
- About a 150 g of good Stilton cheese crumbled into chunks.
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 Tsp of thyme leaves roughly chopped
- Freshly ground black pepper
For the rough puff pastry
- 175g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
- 350g plain flour
- A good pinch of salt
- About 150ml of iced water
- Egg wash (beaten egg mixed with a splash of milk), to glaze
- Fennel seeds and flaky sea salt to finish
- A chunk of stilton for grating (optional)
Method
- Mix together the pork, breadcrumbs, thyme, 2/3rds of the cheese, salt and pepper.
- Combine the butter cubes in a bowl with the flour and salt. Add just enough water to bring the dough together.
- On a well- floured surface, roll out the dough in one direction, away from you, to a rectangle about 1cm thick.
- Fold the two short ends into the middle so they overlap. Give the pastry a quarter-turn, and repeat the rolling and folding process five more times.
- Wrap the pastry then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes–1 hour.
- Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to an oblong, about 45 x 12cm and 4mm thick.
- Lay the sausage meat along one long side of the pastry, about 3cm in from the edge.
- Scatter over the remaining stilton cheese.
- Brush this pastry edge with egg wash and fold the other side of the pastry over the top of the filling to enclose it. Crimp the edges together well to seal.
- Lightly brush the pastry with a little more egg wash, then scatter over the fennel seeds and a light sprinkling of flaky salt.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4/ESSE dial guide top end of moderate.
- Using a serrated knife, cut the sausage roll into 8 lengths and place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
- Bake in the oven for 20 mins, remove and grate over some extra stilton and a sprinkling of fennel seeds then return the tray to the oven and cook for a further 15 – 20 mins, until golden brown.
- Remove the sausage rolls from the tray to a wire rack to cool. Eat warm or leave to cool before serving. They can be kept in the fridge for a day or two.
This delicious recipe was issued with the compliments of Gill Meller to commemorate the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Gill Meller is a chef, award-winning food writer, food stylist and cookery teacher. Known for sharing the stage with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage, Gill has partnered with the ESSE product development and testing team for approaching twenty years.
