It’s week 8 of the 2021 Bake Off Bake-along already! I cannot believe it! Only a few more to go! This week was “free-from week” on the Great British Bake Off, having the bakers make dairy-free ice cream sandwiches for their signature challenge and a spectacular gluten-free celebration cake for the showstopper! And for the technical challenge, Prue asked the bakers to make Vegan Sausage Rolls – so that was also my challenge this weekend!
Prue’s Vegan Sausage Rolls are made with a vegan rough-puff pastry, a mushroom, walnut and lentil filling, and are served with a homemade caramelised red onion chutney! I have to say, they tasted pretty good! Flaky pastry, a nice filling and I really liked the chutney! Personally, I would prefer a meat version (check out my Caramelised Red Onion Sausage Rolls here), but for a vegan option, this really is not too shabby! 😉
How to make Prue’s Vegan Sausage Rolls
There were three main elements to this technical challenge. Making a vegan rough puff pastry, a well-seasoned mushroom and walnut filling, and then of course a homemade caramelised red onion chutney! Let’s go through each element in turn.
HOW TO MAKE RUFF PUFF PASTRY
Puff pastry is one of my favourite types of pastry! Thin, crisp layers of pastry, which is often accompanied by a yummy pie-like filling. The most important thing when making puff pastry is to create good lamination, i.e. alternating layers of butter and pastry. This is achieved by folding butter into the dough, and then repeating the rolling and folding process multiple times. When the butter then melts in the oven, it will create steam and push the layers of dough apart, thereby creating the unique flaky texture of the pastry.
It’s really important for this recipe that you don’t use a vegan butter spread, but buy an actual block of vegan butter. I managed to find some in ASDA (see below). The spread won’t work as well as it doesn’t set hard when chilled.
I had actually never made ruff puff pastry before making these Vegan Sausage Rolls! Last time I made sausage rolls (check out the recipe here) I used full puff pastry. Ruff puff is a much quicker way to make puff pastry and I have been meaning to give it a go for a while! Instead of incorporating the butter as a large slab (see how to make Puff Pastry here), you freeze butter and grate it before folding into the pastry. This makes the pastry much easier to fold and roll, and I think I will be using this method in future. So keep an eye out for a rough puff pastry baking basics post!
THE MUSHROOM FILLING
The mushroom filling for these vegan sausage rolls requires a lot of “fancy” and slightly more expensive ingredients. I suppose that is often the case with vegan recipes and I very much hope that these products become cheaper in future to encourage people to eat less meat!
The filling contains largely walnuts and mushrooms. 200g of chestnut mushrooms, and also some dried porcini mushrooms. These are quite expensive to buy but are very intense in their flavour – that’s why you don’t need to use too many and you should use the soaking liquid in your cooking as well! The filling is flavoured with miso paste, something I have also never used before. I was unable to find brown miso paste as stated in the original recipe here, so used white miso paste instead. The recipe also called for ground flaxseed (also very common in vegan baking as it can be used as an egg substitute) and the mixture is seasoned with a wide variety of fresh herbs.
While the recipe calls for using a food processor to make the filling, you could also make the filling without one. Just finely chop the mushrooms and walnuts before cooking, and perhaps use a potato masher or stick blender to smoothen the mixture later on.
THE CARAMELISED RED ONION CHUTNEY
I absolutely LOVE caramelised red onion chutney! A sandwich with soft cheese, sliced tomatoes and some caramelised red onion chutney – try it and you will thank me forever XD!
I usually always buy red onion chutney from Lidl, as I think their one is the best! But knowing how easy it is to make yourself is really good to know! All you do is cook the onion, add some garlic and sugar to caramelise them nicely, and then add some balsamic vinegar! Easy peasy! I did however, make exactly the same mistake as Crystelle did on Bake Off and added far too much chilli to mine! It was so hot! I usually really like spice, but I think if I made this chutney again, I would probably leave out the chilli completely. That would just be my personal preference!
More Bake Off Technical Challenges
I am absolutely obsessed with the Great British Bake Off and have challenged myself to attempt all of (or at least the ones that are “realistic” – I won’t be making pitta breads on a camp fire in the back garden!) the technical challenges from the programme! I have tried quite a few already, so make sure you check out some of the other recipes and see how I got on!
- Mary Berry’s Religieuses
- Mary Berry’s Fraisier Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Hand-raised Chicken, Bacon and Apricot Pies
- Mary Berry’s Bakewell Tart with feathered Icing
- Paul’s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
- Mary Berry’s Frosted Walnut Layer Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf
- Mary Berry’s Homemade Jaffa Cakes
- Paul Hollywood’s Wagon Wheel Biscuits
- Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Mini Pork Pies
- Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls
- Prue’s Vegan Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts (S2UC Special)
- Pizza Star Bread (Junior Bake Off)
- Mary Berry’s Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake
- Paul’s Crusty White Cob
- Paul Hollywood’s Rainbow Bagels
- Prue Leith’s Malt Loaf
- Paul’s Jammy Biscuits
- Paul Hollywood’s Olive Ciabatta Bread Sticks with Homemade Tzatziki
- Prue Leith’s Sticky Toffee Puddings with Sesame Tuiles
- Prue Leith’s Prinzregententorte
- Paul Hollywood’s Baklava (22cm)
- Paul’s Caramel Biscuit Bars (Twix)
- Prue Leith’s Vegan Sausage Rolls
- Prue’s Sablé Breton Cake
- Paul Hollywood’s Sticky Belgian Buns
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
- Prue’s Garibaldi Biscuits with Feathered Chocolate Icing
- Paul Hollywood’s Pain au Raisins
- Paul’s Spicy Beef Tacos
- Paul Hollywood’s S’mores
- Prue Leith’s Pistachio Praline Ice Cream Cones
- Vegetable Spring Rolls
- Prue’s Vertical Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Raspberry Tarts
- Paul Hollywood’s Devonshire Splits
Prue Leith’s Vegan Sausage Rolls with Caramelised Red Onion Chutney | Bake Off Technical Challenge
Recipe
Ingredients (makes 8):
FOR THE RUFF-PUFF PASTRY:
- 300g plain flour
- pinch of salt
- 50g vegan butter block, cubed and chilled
- 8–9 tbsp ice-cold water
- 120g vegan butter block, frozen and grated
FOR THE MUSHROOM FILLING:
- 7g dried porcini mushrooms
- 100ml just-boiled water
- 200g chestnut mushrooms
- 70g walnuts
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 x 400g tin of lentils, drained
- 2 tbsp brown miso paste (I used white as that
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds
- juice of ½ lemon
- large handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 3 sage sprigs, leaves picked and chopped
- 3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked and chopped
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
TO ASSEMBLE:
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp almond milk
- 1 tsp agave syrup
FOR THE CARAMELISED RED ONION CHUTNEY:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 red onions, finely chopped
- 0.5-1 red chilli, finely chopped (taste the chilli first to see how hot it is and to decide how much to use)
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 3 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
YOU WILL ALSO NEED:
- Food processor (alternatively, roughly chop the mushrooms and walnuts by hand and mash the filling at the end to create a smooth texture)
- Large frying pan
- 1 large baking tray
- Silicone pastry brush
Method:
- Start by making the rough puff pastry. Mix together the flour and salt in a bowl, then rub in the 50g of vegan butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Gradually add enough ice-cold water to bring the mixture together and form a dough. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and briefly knead until smooth. Then roll it out into a rectangle, about 15 x 30cm, with one of the short ends nearest you.
- Grate half the frozen vegan block over the bottom two thirds of the dough. Then fold down the top third and fold up the bottom third as if folding a letter.
- Turn the folded dough through by 90 degrees and roll it out into a 15 x 30cm rectangle. Repeat Step 2, using the remaining frozen vegan block and fold as before. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave it to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Repeat the rolling and folding process outlined in steps 2 and 3 (without adding more butter this time) twice more. Chill the dough for 20 minutes between each roll and fold. After the final fold, just keep the
- In the meantime, you can start making the filling. Place the dried porcini in a heatproof bowl and pour over the just-boiled water. Set aside for 10 minutes until the mushrooms are rehydrated and softened. Finely chop the porcini and reserve the liquid for later.
- Tip the chestnut mushrooms and walnuts into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Don’t overprocess at this stage.
- Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium–high heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes until soft. Add the walnut and mushroom mixture and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Next, add the garlic, the chopped porcini and the soaking liquid. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 5–10 minutes, until the liquid has boiled and bubbled away. Add the lentils, miso paste, flaxseeds, lemon juice, parsley, sage and thyme and cook for a final 2–3 minutes, until the mix is dry. Set aside to cool.
- Once the mixture has cooled, return it to the food processor and pulse it until smooth. Divide the filling into 8 equal portions and shape each one into a 10cm-long cylinder. Place the cylinders on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and chill until needed.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan.
- To assemble the vegan sausage rolls, lightly dust the surface with flour and roll the pastry into a 30x40cm rectangle. Then cut this into 8 smaller rectangles of 10 x 15cm.
- Cut 5 or 6 diagonal slits, about 1cm apart, down one side of each pastry rectangle (this will be the side that overlaps the filling
- Spread each rectangle with a little Dijon mustard, then place a cylinder of the filling on the uncut side.
- Fold the cut side of the pastry over the filling and seal the edges together. Crimp the edges with a fork to create a seam down the side of each roll and the diagonal slits are on the top of the filling.
- Transfer the sausage rolls back onto the lined baking sheet. Whisk together the almond milk and agave syrup in a small bowl and brush over the sausage rolls to glaze.
- Bake the sausage rolls into the preheated oven for 20–30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is cooked through. Once baked, transfer the vegan sausage rolls to a wire rack to cool.
- In the meantime, prepare the caramelised red onion chutney. Heat the olive oil in a small pan and add the red onions once hot. Cook over a low heat for 10-15 minutes until the onions are soft and starting to colour. Add the garlic and sugar, then cook for a further 5 minutes. Finally, add the balsamic vinegar and bring the mixture to the boil. Stir continuously and boil until all the vinegar has evaporated.
- Transfer the caramelised red onion chutney to a small bowl and leave to cool. Then serve the chutney with the vegan sausage rolls, which are best eaten when still slightly warm!
