Sausage and egg picnic slice

Get ready for summer with this sausage and egg picnic slice. It’s made with hard-boiled eggs, encased in a cheese and onion flavoured pork sausage meat, and wrapped in a layer of crispy puff pastry. It’s great for packing in lunch boxes, makes a delicious light lunch, and is ideal for an alfresco meal in the garden or at your favourite picnic spot.

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Sausage and egg picnic slice

Now that summer is finally on its way, thoughts of picnics and barbeques are starting to rear their head, and we are starting to look for recipes that we can make to eat outdoors.

This sausage and egg picnic roll is such a recipe. It makes a delicious snack to pack in a picnic basket, or you could serve it as a starter to munch on while you are waiting for your meat to grill on the barbeque.

It’s made from good quality, low-fat sausages which are mixed with grated onion, grated cheese, and tomato paste for added flavour. It’s then wrapped around a layer of sliced hard-boiled eggs, before being encased in crispy puff pastry and baked in the oven.

The sausage and egg picnic slice is like a gigantic sausage roll – and who doesn’t love a good sausage roll?

For convenience, I’ve used shop-bought puff pastry, but it tastes just as good wrapped in homemade shortcrust pastry (I’ve made it both ways). If you prefer to make your own pastry, I’ve included instructions below for a deliciously light and flaky pastry, which makes the perfect casing for this sausage and egg picnic slice.

How to make a sausage and egg picnic slice

**You can get the complete recipe for both the pastry and the sausage and egg picnic slice on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.**

The quantities given will make 1 x 18″ slice (the length of an unrolled roll of shop-bought puff-pastry). If you prefer you could make 2 x 9″ slices instead.

If you want to make a smaller sausage roll, just halve the ingredients.

Ingredients

• Sausages – Use your favourite brand of sausage. I like to use Cumberland or Lincolnshire sausages, but any good quality pork sausage with a low-fat content will work well. You could use beef sausages if you prefer. Try not to use sausage with a high-fat content or you will find that the fat will leak out all over your baking tray and soak into the pastry.
• Eggs – Hard-boiled.
• Grated cheese – cheddar works well, but you can use any cheese that you can grate.
• Onions – I use white onions. I haven’t tried this with red onions.
• Tomato puree – this is concentrated tomatoes, not to be confused with tomato ketchup.
• Puff pastry – Life is too short to make puff pastry. Shop-bought is a perfectly adequate substitute. If you’d like to try your hand at making puff pastry, my friend Chloe over at Feast Glorious Feast website has a recipe for homemade puff pastry. I’ve also included instructions below for making your own flaky pastry that works really well with this recipe.

Instructions

• Start off by putting your eggs on to boil. Once the water is boiling, leave the eggs for at least 6 minutes so that you will be able to peel them easily. Once they have finished boiling, submerge them in cold water and allow to cool before peeling.

• Slit the skin of the sausages with a sharp knife. Remove the skin from the sausage and discard. Put the sausage meat into a mixing bowl.
• Grate 1 large onion and add to the meat.
• Add 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese and a good squirt of tomato paste from a tube (about 2 tablespoons) (image 1).
• You shouldn’t need any salt or pepper, the sausages should have sufficient seasoning.
• Get your hands in, and mix until all the ingredients are well combined (image 2).

• Unroll the pastry. I like to leave the pastry on the paper it was rolled in to make it easier to handle. out into a long rectangle.
• Arrange half of the sausage meal down the middle of the pastry (down the length), and made a slight dent in the middle to hold the eggs (image 3).
• Arrange the eggs down the length of the sausage. (image 4).

• Cover the eggs with the remaining meat mixture, taking care to cover them completely. Use your hands to mold the sausage into a rounded shape.
• Using a sharp knife make slits in the pastry on either side of the sausage meat (image 1).
• Starting at one end, wrap alternate strips of pastry over the meat (image 2).
• Use the greaseproof paper to help you transfer the wrapped sausage roll to a baking tray (image 3). Trim away the excess greaseproof paper with a pair of scissors.

Tip – if you’d prefer to make two smaller rolls (which would be easier to handle) cut the pastry in half across the width before you start adding the meat.

Baking the picnic slice

• Brush the picnic slice with lightly beaten egg to help the pastry to brown.
• Place the baking sheet into a pre-heated oven (180C / 360F) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the pastry is golden brown (image4).
• Keep your eye on it. My oven has a hot spot and you can see from image 4 that it started to catch at the end. You may need to rotate your baking tray halfway through cooking.
• If the pastry on the underside of the picnic roll hasn’t quite cooked through (use a spatula to lift it so you can check), simply roll the sausage roll over so the underside is on top and replace it in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.
• Depending on the fat content of your sausages you may find that the baking sheet accumulates a lot of fat. If this happens, remove the tray from the oven halfway through the cooking process, and pour the excess fat off the tray. Use a spatula to prevent the sausage roll from sliding off the tray.
• Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then slice and enjoy.

Extra notes

• This sausage and egg roll can be eaten either warm or cold.
• You will find that the sausage mixture will shrink on cooking and you may get a gap between the pastry and the sausage meat.
• To turn this sausage and egg roll into a delicious light lunch, serve with a fresh green salad and a spoonful of chutney, tomato sauce, or mustard. See my recipes for Mrs Balls chutney and pear and onion chutney if you’d like to try your hand at making your own chutney.

How to make flaky pastry

Making your own pastry is so rewarding, especially when you have a recipe as easy as this one, which is guaranteed not to fail.

Tips for perfect pastry

• Make sure your ingredients are as cold as possible. Keep the eggs and butter in the fridge and use ice-cold water for mixing.
• Handle the pastry as little as possible.
• Leave the pastry to relax in the fridge for at least half an hour once it has been mixed.

There are only 5 easy steps to follow and you can have this mixed in no time.

• Sift 280g (2 cups) of all-purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add 125g (4.5ounces) of cubed butter and 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)1 (image 1). Don’t add any baking powder. We don’t want the pastry to puff up during cooking. For this reason, you should not use self-raising flour.
• Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (image2). Lift the butter and flour above the bowl and let it drop back as you rub. This will ensure you incorporate plenty of air into the mixture, which will result in a lighter pastry.
• Now separate 2 large eggs and add the yolks to the flour. You can use the whites to make meringues or to make these coconut meringue topped jam tarts.
• Add 4 tablespoons of ice-cold water (image 3).
• Use a flat-bladed knife to cut the eggs and water through the flour until the pastry starts to come together in lumps (image 4).
• If the pastry does not come together, add another tablespoon of water.
• Now use your hands to gently press the pastry together into a flat disk. Do not knead. Handle the pastry as little as possible – over-worked pastry will be tough.
• Place the disk of pastry into a plastic bag, or wrap with clingfilm and place in the fridge to relax for half an hour, then roll out and use in this recipe.

Can I freeze this sausage and egg slice?

You can freeze this sausage and egg slice once it has been assembled. Just wrap each roll in baking parchment and then wrap in clingfilm and store in the freezer for up to six months.

To bake, allow to defrost in the refrigerator, then bake as per the recipe instructions.

You could also assemble the sausage and egg slice, cover with plastic wrap, and leave it in the refrigerator for a day before baking.

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