Pork and Apple Sausage Rolls

These are delicious and so simple! Perfect for a summer picnic which is exactly what I made them for, these were my savoury contribution to our High Tea Picnic. I loved them and everyone else seemed to enjoy them as well. They are definitely on my ‘must make again soon’ list.

Ingredients:
6 Italian pork sausages (500 grams or there about)
400 grams pork mince
1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 granny smith apple, grated
1 tablespoon curly parsley, finely chopped
4 sheets pre-rolled flaky puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200°C.
Using your hands, squeeze excess moisture from apple. Lay on paper towels and set aside to ensure as much moisture as possible is removed.
Cut sausage casings. Squeeze sausage meat into a large bowl (discarding the casing).
Add pork mince, caraway seeds and parsley to the sausage meat.
Add apple to mince mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.
Place pastry sheets on your work surface and cut in half horizontally.
Spoon approximately one eighth of the mince mixture along one long edge of each pastry piece.
Brush the pastry edges with egg and roll up tightly to enclose filling. Cut each roll into quarters. Brush tops with egg (at this stage you could score the pastry to create a pattern or sprinkle with sesame seeds or similar). 
Place rolls, seam side down, on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Repeat with remaining pastry, mince mixture and egg.
Bake sausage rolls for 20 minutes or until golden.

Beautiful serving plate c/o The Vintage Table

Spiced Apple Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

I made a cake and I am pretty damn proud of it.  I don’t make cakes all that often and this one is a mix of different recipes that I found.  Because this is a mix of different recipes, there are a few extra ideas mentioned after the recipe below.  This cake is lovely and moist and the cream cheese icing is delish!

125g butter
1 cup cooked apples (about 2-3 apples) or 1 x 225g can apples (I used this apple pie filling stuff)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon each nutmeg, allspice and salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
icing sugar (for dusting if you don’t want to make the cream cheese icing)

Preheat oven to 160°C.
Melt butter in a medium-large saucepan.  Remove from heat and mix in apples and sugar.  Stir to combine then stir in egg.
Sift dry ingredients into the apple mix.  Stir just enough to blend ingredients evenly.  Spread the mixture into a greased 20cm cake tin and bake for 45 minutes.  When cool, you could dust with icing sugar, or coat the cake with the lemon cream cheese icing from the recipe below.

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing:
250g cream cheese
50g butter
2 cups icing sugar
Rind 2 lemons and the juice of ½ – 1 lemon

To make the icing, place all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric beater until thick and creamy.

You could also add in ½ cup of sultanas if you like, when you mix the dry ingredients into the apple mix. 

This recipe can also be made into muffins.  Divide mixture among 12 large greased muffin tins (allow ½ cup per muffin).  Bake for about 35 minutes, until risen and set.  Stand for 5 minutes before turning out.