carlasconfections test: August 2012

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Homemade Sausage Rolls

I am SO sorry for being so quiet over the last two weeks! I have some news - ok stop holding your breath - its not THAT type of news. I am studying - yeah! I have started studying to become a primary school teacher. Wow hey! Not that I don't enjoy my current job - I really do, its just that I have wanted to study for a while now and have FINALLY taken the plunge. But that's not all I am doing - I am still working, and blogging and am just adding studying to the pile - crazy I know, but its what I want to do, so I am doing it! Woop woop!

Ok - so that was my apology - I will try not be so "absent" next time! Thanks for being so understanding :) Here is what I have been dying to share with you guys over the last two weeks - sausage rolls.


These very the very first "savoury" bake my mom ever taught me to make. They are kind of special to me! This recipe is totally a made up one - finely tweaked to make what I think is the perfect sausage roll.


It starts off with 6 porkies! I have seen a couple of bloggers using like a big roll of sausage meat (not individual sausages in their little skins) but we don't get that sort of thing here! If you do - its about 375g of pork sausage meat. But if you are like me, you have to go pop these little guys out of their skins.


And then let them get cozy a *very* finely chopped onion and some mixed garlic and herb seasoning.


And mix em up real good!


Ok - so now its time for the pastry. I have a thing for pastry. The way it goes all yummy and crispy like.. mmmm, my oh my! If you are a regular reader of my blog - you will have noticed that I am a firm believer of making things from scratch - one of the few exceptions to this is puff pastry. I buy it ready rolled.I feel like its kind of like buying chopped veggies. :)


I usually buy the 400g "Today" pastry, it comes frozen and all rolled up, so I just take one out the freezer and let it defrost before unrolling it. The thickness of the pastry is totally up to you and what you would prefer, I like to use it the thickness it comes (it may have something to do with not having extra rolling to do - but I am not entirely sure), I guess its probably about 5mm thick. Here is where it gets sliced up width-wise so there are 3 pieces of pastry, about 12cm wide and about 20cm long (don't hold me to that - just an estimate!) Now its time to get our meat on! Divide the meat mixture into 3 portions and make a sausage of meat on each piece of pastry. DON'T make it to thick, or else you won't get the sausage rolls to close nicely! Then, lightly beat an egg an brush it onto one side of each of the pieces of pastry (you need this so the ends of the pastry will stick to each other - its like pastry glue) and then you can roll em up.


Start with the side without the egg and fold it in so it is covering the sausage meat, then fold the eggy side over so it folds egg side down. Then flip the long roll so the folded side is on the bottom. Confusing - I know - just look at the pictures :)


Brush the tops of the rolls with some beaten egg (you will probably have some left over from earlier). This makes them go gorgeously golden brown and extra crispy...


Grab a nice sharp knife and cut the long sausages into as many sections as you fancy - if they are for dinner, you can make them longer! I love making these for dinner, they are tasty and easy - and are great the next day for lunch! Once you have cut them up, poke some holes in the top of the pastry with a fork.


I like to keep a small strip of pastry for cutting out cute shapes and sticking them to the top of my sausage rolls. I am slightly obsessed with pretty food :)


Pop them onto a greased baking tray and bake them for about 30 min, or until golden brown, at 180 degrees C (350 deg F). You may have to adjust the baking time depending on the size and thickness of the sausage meat. I find for the above thickness and size 30 min is perfect, just make sure they are nice and golden on the outside and the meat is cooked on the inside!


So there you have it! Hope you all enjoy it!I know Daisy was dying to!


She is always my baking buddy and usually is at my feet all the way - this time however - she had to get higher to see what that tasty smell was when they had finished baking. She is the very cutest! Too bad for little Daisy Dog, she didn't get get a crumb!

Homemade Sausage Rolls {Printable Recipe}


400g ready rolled puff pastry
375g pork sausage meat
1 small onion - chopped VERY finely
2 teaspoon mixed garlic and herb seasoning
1 lightly beaten egg
  • In a bowl, mix the meat, onion and seasoning well. Set aside.
  • Lay the pastry out on a cutting board and cut into strips of about 12cm x 20cm (or that kind of proportion).
  • In the middle of each strip, lay a strip of the meat ( not too much or they won't close!)
  • Brush one half of the pastry with the beaten egg
  • Fold the unbrushed half of the pastry over the meat and then fold the brushed side of the pastry over that.
  • Flip this long sausage over so the folded side is at the bottom
  • Brush the top with egg and poke some holes in the top of the sausage roll with a fork
  • Cut the long sausage into whatever size sausage rolls you would like
  • Bake them at 180 degrees Cel. for about 30 min. They should be golden brown on the top and the sausage meat should be cooked through.
  • Baking time may vary depending on the size and thickness.
www.bitsofsunshine.com (c) Heidi Hawyes

Thursday, 2 August 2012

Black Forest Cheese Cake Dessert

The latest craze to hit the baking world seems to be the concept of desserts in jars - and I LOVE it! Its such a sweet idea! Any ways - I made my own version of the craze (as always) and I made some dessert in glasses!


If you saw this post last week, you will recognize some of these photos, because its the SAME process that I used to make my mini black forest cheese cakes! So here is the run down:


It all starts off with a biscuit base made from Tennis Biscuits and melted butter. Just a quick note on that: I used Tennis Biscuits because that is what us South African's use for that sort of thing :) but you can just use whatever you would normally use for a biscuit base!


And this biscuit base mixture get spooned into the bottom of a glass. Then these little fellas get put in the fridge while the cheesecake makin' begins :)


First up in the mix is some cottage cheese, condensed milk and lemon juice which gets mixed until it looks like this:


This mixture is really really really good! It is the very essence of cheese cake (ok so maybe I am being a little melodramatic - but it is very good!)


Then some whipping cream gets whipped up nice and stiff - and then the yummy, tangy lemony mixture gets folded into the cream. Finally - to help the cheese cake set nicely - some gelatine gets hydrated and folded in (for more on the gelatine bit - see this post)

Ok - so that is the basic cheese cake mixture which will form the  top layer of the dessert. At this point you will need to scoop some out and place it in another dish. Make sure its enough for the top layer in all the desserts depending on the size of the jars (or glasses) you are going to be using. Now it is time for the cherry and chocolate part! Oh yeah!


Dump some chopped dark chocolate and a jar of drained morello cherries into the remaining mixture and give it a good stir to distribute the "goods"evenly. Yes - you may lick the spoon after :)



Layering time!!! Grab the jars with the bases out of the fridge and spoon some of the black forest cheesecake mixture over it. Then spoon a layer of black cherry preserve over this and finally end it off with some of the plain cheese cake mixture. If you like - which I did - you can spoon some extra preserve over the top and plonk a fresh cherry on the very top. Sadly - you can't dig in just yet - these fellas need to refrigerate for at least 3 hours before you can enjoy them. In my opinion, they are way better the next day - the flavours just seem to 'deepen' overnight!



  And so there you have it!

Black Forest Cheesecake in Jars {printable}

 Biscuit Base:

1 packet tennis biscuits / graham crackers
125g melted butter
  • Crush biscuits and mix with butter
  • Press in a greased dish and refrigerate for about 30min

Cheesecake Filling
1 tub cottage cheese (250g)
500ml whipped cream (heavy cream)
125ml lemon juice
1 tin condensed milk
20ml gelatine powder
60ml water
100g chopped bittersweet chocolate
1 jar morello cherries
cherry topping / cherry preserves

  • Mix the cottage cheese and condensed milk until smooth
  • Slowly stir in lemon juice
  • Fold this mixture into the whipped cream
  • Hydrate the gelatine in the water and fold it into the cream mixture
  • Spoon some of this plain mixture into a bowl to use later
  • Fold in the chocolate and cherries into the remaining mixture
  • Layer the black forest cheesecake mixture over the biscuit base 
  • Spoon some cherry preserve over this
  • Add the final layer of plain cheesecake
  • Top the cheese cake with the cherry topping / preserves
  • Decorate with fresh cherries (if you like)
  • Refrigerate for at least 3 hours to set



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