Hooray! It’s almost the weekend and boy do I have a breakfast idea for you.
Sausage Roll Ups!
Like Biscuits and Gravy – only cuter.
And with lots more sausage.
What could be better? Sleep late, relax, read the paper, have some OJ, scramble a few eggs if that’s your thing.
Then pull these babies out of the oven and you’ll get everyone’s attention in a hurry.
Serious biscuit and sausage goodness, rolled up in a neat little package and covered in gravy.
Here’s what you need:
Sausage, Flour, Milk, Salt, Baking Powder and Crisco Shortening. (Pepper for the gravy. not shown.)
Click HERE for a Sausage Roll Ups with Gravy Shopping List
I think my love of Italian Sausage has been more than thoroughly documented here so it’s nice to give breakfast sausage its turn.
Grab 1 pound of your favorite bulk breakfast sausage. For me, that would be Jimmy Dean Sausage with Sage. SO much flavor.
Brown the sausage in a large pan over medium to medium high heat. Break the sausage up with a wooden spoon or spatula as it cooks.
Cook the sausage until there is no pink remaining and it has nice browned crusty bits.
While the sausage cooks, make the biscuits. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour with 3 teaspoons baking powder.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt…
and whisk to thoroughly combine all the dry ingredients. You could also sift these ingredients for even lighter biscuit dough but since we’re going to roll it flat, sifting isn’t critical.
Add 1/4 cup Crisco Shortening and cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter or two knives.
Using the twist of your wrist with an up and down motion on the pastry cutter will quickly incorporate the shortening into the flour.
The shortening will break up into tiny, flour covered pieces about the size of peas or smaller.
Add 3/4 cup milk and mix until the flour is incorporated and the dough stiffens up.
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead it 10 -12 times until thoroughly combined.
Add a little more flour to your counter or board so the dough doesn’t stick and then roll it out into a rectangle-ish shape.
You may need to re-flour the surface and your rolling pin as you go.
Roll the dough as thin as you can without it tearing…between 1/8 and 1/4 inch….about the same as you would roll for sugar cookies.
Now for the good stuff. Sprinkle the browned sausage over the surface of the rolled biscuit dough.
Reserve at least 1/2 cup of sausage for the gravy and save that sausage pan with all the drippings and extra little sausage bits.
Starting at the narrow end, roll the sausage and biscuits together in a tight pinwheel pressing lightly as you roll.
Cut the sausage roll into 2 inch sections with a sharp knife.
Place the sausage roll ups seam side down on a greased baking sheet.
Bake at 450 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes until puffed up and golden brown.
Meanwhile, while the roll ups bake, make yourself some gravy.
Hopefully your pan should have some good, flavorful grease drippings from cooking the sausage.
My grandma would have added a dollop of crisco or (gasp!) lard to this pan, but we’re just going to add some flour.
Stir the flour (about 2 Tablespoons) into the pan drippings to make a roux. Cook the roux over medium heat for a minute or two and then add milk.
I like to start with about 1/2 cup of milk, stir to incorporate, let it thicken, and then add more milk until you have the thickness of gravy that you prefer. Season with plenty of black pepper.
Gravy is not an exact science. Sorry. But I can give you some general measurements for gravy or any white sauce.
2 Tablespoons oil, butter or pan drippings + 2 Tablespoons Flour + 1 cup of Milk = gravy.
Bring your gravy up to a simmer to thicken. If your gravy gets too thick as it cooks, just add a little more milk.
Too thin is a little trickier. In order to not have lumpy gravy, don’t just add more flour to the pan. Instead, scoop out a little of the hot gravy into a small bowl and stir flour into it to make a paste. Add that paste back into the pan and whisk it in. Like magic, no lumps.
Add the reserved sausage bits into the gravy and stir to combine.
Try to time this so your sausage roll ups are warm, fresh from the oven.
Mmmm. Good.
Even better!
This is an old family recipe from my Grandmother. My dad said that she could stretch this recipe to feed all 8 people in their family when times were lean.
This feels like breakfast to me now, but in our family we always had sausage roll ups for dinner.
But then, we’re a little weird.
Here’s the recipe:
