sausage rolls

Every now and then, one of my colleagues would go around the department taking orders for frozen products such as sausages and bacon to be delivered to our office. I have to date ordered cheese sausages, bratwurst and pork chipolata. I intend to order the bacon the next time that my colleague takes orders - I have in mind to bake some bacon bread. Yummy....

When I baked some sausage rolls, I used the cheese sausages. These sausages are longer than the regular packets of frozen sausages. As such, I had to roll the bread dough into a large piece in order to wrap the dough around the sausages. As a result, the layer of bread around the sausage was not as thick as the sausage rolls that you can buy from the confectioneries. If you were to use a smaller sausage, you should be able to achieve a similar look to the sausage rolls sold at the confectioneries.

The highlight of the day was when I presented the sausage rolls to my family when they came to our home for dinner and they thought that Da and I had bought the sausage rolls. Ah.... the satisfaction of home cooking! *grin*

Ever since I started using our breadmaker machine on a weekly basis, Da and I rarely buy bread from the confectioneries. I am always on the lookout for new bread recipes to try!

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp castor sugar
1 tsp salt
low fat milk mixed with 1 egg (beaten together) to total 230g
300g bread flour
2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
8 sausages
egg wash (comprising 1 egg + 1 tsp water)

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients except the bread flour, yeast, sausages and egg wash in the bucket of the breadmaker machine.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that the wet ingredients are totally covered.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and set to "dough" cycle. Start the cycle.

5. When the cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board. Using floured hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes.

6. Separate the dough into 8 equal portions, roll each portion into a ball and let them rest for 10 minutes covered with a damp cloth.

7. Use a rolling pin and roll each portion of dough into an oval shape. Place a sausage in the centre of the dough. Cut each side of the dough into 6 to 7 strips. Fold the strips alternating the left and right over the sausage.

8. Place the rolls on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper. Cover the tray with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

9. Brush the dough with the egg wash and bake at 200 degrees celsius for 8 minutes, then at 180 degrees celsius for 5 minutes or until the sausage rolls turn golden brown.