Air fryer pork, walnut and blue cheese sausage rolls

Sausage rolls recipe

Parties, picnics, brunch, lunch, dinner or snack time… if homemade sausage rolls are on the table there are sure to be smiles on faces thanks to that irresistible combination of crisp, flaky pastry and flavour-packed filling. A sausage roll can be bite-sized finger food or big enough to be a meal. The classic sausage roll is made with a seasoned sausage mince filling wrapped in puff pastry, brushed with egg and baked in the oven until puffed and golden. This versatile formula can be adapted to any filling you like using different meats, vegetables and cheeses, but pork sausage rolls are an all-time favourite. This recipe makes 18 large sausage rolls, so it’s ideal for entertaining. Plus, sausage rolls freeze well, so you can enjoy some now and save the rest for later.

Equipment you will need for sausage rolls

You can cook these sausage rolls the traditional way in the oven – place on a lined baking tray and bake at 200°C for 25 mins or until golden and cooked through – but if you have an air fryer it’s fantastic for cooking sausage rolls in batches, depending on the size of the basket. Like mini benchtop fan-forced ovens, air fryers heat up faster than the oven does, don’t heat up your kitchen as much and stop cooking when the timer is up just like a microwave. Cooking your sausage rolls in the air fryer also frees up your oven for cooking other foods at different temperatures, which is great when you’re entertaining and need to serve lots of different things at once. Each batch of air fryer sausage rolls takes less time to cook that one batch in the oven, and that way you can serve them up one batch at a time rather than all at once.

If you want to get that perfect golden finish on your sausage rolls, it’s good to have a pastry brush to hand for brushing lightly whisked egg evenly over the pastry. This also makes it easy to decorate the sausage rolls by sprinkling them with tasty seeds, such as black and white sesame seeds or poppy seeds.

Ingredients you will need for sausage rolls

The traditional way to make sausage rolls from scratch is to start with plain mince and add seasonings and any extras to flavour it. Here’s a handy shortcut though – buy your favourite sausages and remove the skins so you have a tasty filling ready to go. We've used Coles Classic Pork Sausages – these great-value sausages come seasoned with salt, garlic, onion and herbs and spices, so they make the perfect blank canvas for any extra flavours you want to add. For this recipe, we’ve mixed in crumbled blue cheese for savouriness, finely chopped walnuts for a nutty crunch and chopped fresh parsley for freshness. If you like, you can swap out these ingredients for 2 tsp fennel seeds to make pork and fennel sausage rolls instead.

Once you have your filling ready to go, the next thing you need is the pastry. For this quantity of filling you’ll need 3 ready-rolled pastry sheets. Make sure you don’t remove them from the freezer too early – you want them to be just thawed when you assemble your sausage rolls, or the pastry will get too soft and be difficult to handle. Cut the pastry sheets in half to make 6 even rectangles of pastry.

To assemble the sausage rolls, lightly whisk an egg in a small bowl. Take about one-sixth of the sausage filling and shape it into a log along one pastry rectangle – the log should be about 3cm wide and 24cm long. Arrange the log so it’s near the long edge of the pastry rectangle to make it easy to roll up. Before you roll, brush some of the egg along the edges of the pastry so it will stick together. Then carefully roll up to make one long sausage roll, which you can cut into 3 shorter rolls, or smaller bite-sized rolls if you’re serving them as finger food. Keep going until you’ve used up all the filling and pastry pieces. Brush the uncooked sausage rolls with more egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds – a mix of white and black sesame seeds looks great, but you can just use white or leave them plain if you like.

What to serve with sausage rolls

These sausage rolls taste great on their own or with a sauce for dipping. Try them with tomato relish, chutney or classic tomato sauce. For a fresh finish, sprinkle over some chopped flat-leaf parsley. Sausage rolls are delicious served hot from the oven or at room temperature.

Now get cooking

Make this your go-to sausage roll recipe – whether you’re cooking them in the air fryer or in the oven, follow our tips to make them your way. To help you change up the flavours, check out these easy recipes too. Seasoned with fresh sage and fennel seeds, our pork and apple sausage rolls are a gourmet choice. For a fun twist, try our red chicken curry sausage rolls. Catering for vegetarians or gluten-free diets? Go for our gluten free sweet potato and fetta rolls. Want more ideas using pork? Head to our pork recipes collection.