Rough puff is a quick and relatively easy method to create flaky layers of crispy pastry for vegan sausage rolls.
I found it easier than I originally thought it would be to make all the layers – it’s just a series of simple steps where you roll, fold, and chill the dough.
The key is to keep the dough cold and handle it as little as possible.
I discovered that it was tricky to get the baking time right. When it’s golden and crisp on the outside, it can still be raw in the middle. Make sure to cut one of your pastries open to check the middle!
I made these as part of the pastry week showstopper for season 1 of the Great British Bakeoff vegan challenge. The task was to make 6 kinds of pastry – 3 kinds of sweet tarts and 3 kinds of savory canapes.
The sweet tarts were butter tarts, custard tarts with sliced plums and a peach glaze, and chocolate cream pie tarts. The canapes were stuffed mushrooms in rough puff pastry, miso roasted pepper hummus twirls, and these lentil sausage rolls.
So much fun (when there wasn’t a puppy constantly barking and wanting to eat everything), and delicious to boot!
Great British Bakeoff Vegan: Season 1, Episode 5, Showstopper
Ingredients
Rough Puff Pastry
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 50 g vegan butter, chilled
- 9-11 Tbsp ice-cold water
- 120 g vegan butter, frozen
- 1 Tbsp soy milk for glaze
Sausage Roll Filling
- ½ pound button mushrooms
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 leek, chopped
- Large handfuls of fresh oregano, sage, and thyme, chopped, or 1 tsp each of dry herbs
- 1 Tbsp red vermouth or red wine
- 1 540 mL can of lentils, drained
- 2 Tbsp white miso paste
- 1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
- ½ lemon, juiced
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Make the pastry
In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt. Cut in the vegan butter with a knife, then use your fingers briefly to rub it together until it looks like breadcrumbs. Gradually add the ice-cold water to form a ball of dough, without over-handling it.
On a large floured board, roll the dough out to a rectangle 15 cm wide x 30cm tall. Grate half of the frozen butter over the bottom 2/3 of the dough, then fold the top 1/3 down over half of the frozen butter. Fold the bottom 1/3 up over this to make a 3-layer stack.
Turn the folded dough 90 degrees, roll it out again to a 15 x 30cm rectangle again, grate the other half of the frozen butter over the bottom 2/3 of the dough, and fold it as before. Wrap in cling wrap and chill for 20 minutes in the fridge.
Remove the dough from the fridge, roll it out to 15 x 30 cm again, fold it again, and chill it for 20 minutes again. Then do this one more time and chill for about 2 hours or overnight. Now the dough is ready to use!
Make the filling
In a food processor, blend the mushrooms and walnuts together until they are finely chopped but not pureed.
In a large pan over medium-high heat, warm up the olive oil, then add the leek and cook for 2-3 minutes to soften it. Mix in the chopped herbs and cook for 1 more minute to wake their flavours up. Then add the walnut and mushroom mixture along with salt and pepper, and cook for about 5 minutes to release the mushroom liquid.
Mix in the red vermouth or wine and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it bubble for a few minutes to boil away the liquid, then mix in the lentils, miso, flax, and lemon juice. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Cook down, mixing often, for a few more minutes until it’s fairly dry. Remove from heat and let it cool.
Once the filling has cooled, you can run it through the food processor once more if you like to break down the lentils a bit.
Assemble and bake
On your floured board, roll the chilled pastry out to about 30 x 40 cm, then use a sharp knife to cut this into 8 smaller rectangles, about 10 x 15 cm each.
Spoon some filling down the length of each rectangle and roll the pastry over it, sealing it well by pinching and crimping the edge. You will have 8 long rolls. Make several slits in the top of each one with a sharp knife so the air can escape, then brush with soy milk.
Put the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 425F for 25 minutes until golden, then turn the heat down to 375F and bake for 10-15 more minutes until you can cut into one of the rolls and the pastry is flaky all the way through, not doughy and translucent. If it gets too brown on top, cover with aluminum foil while it’s baking.
Cut your sausage rolls into bite-sized canapes and serve hot. Enjoy!
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