Mariette's Sausage Buns (are really rich!)

I love going through cookbooks. And you have no idea how weird it is that I just wrote that.

My dad gave me a cookbook that I really wanted for Christmas. I found it while I was Christmas shopping, and immediately lusted for it. It was the picture of the "chocolate nutmeg cupcakes & glossy coffee frosting" that really did me in, but the first thing in the book I made was Mariette's Sausage Buns. The picture looked so incredibly, wholesomely rustic that they just begged to be made. So I did. I don't know if rustic usually equals incredibly buttery and rich, but these buns are both.

The recipe credit goes to Yvette Van Boven (and her mom), but the discovery that if you are going to go skiing, you should probably pack sausage buns for lunch is mine. These are not low-cal folks. There is enough meaty, buttery goodness to keep these buns from freezing solid on a cold day, and enough caloric power to blast you down the slopes of your choice.

Van Boven states that this is one of the oldest recipes she has. You should make them, don't you think?

(One last note. There is a bunch of writing coming up. Mostly things I learned making these buns. Don't be discouraged and think all the writing means they are hard to make. They are decidedly not hard.)


Be sure to see my note about crimping the ends of these yummies!

You will need...

For the Filling
2.25 lbs ground sirloin
1 egg
3 Tbsp ketchup
1/3 cup ketjap manis (This is an Indonesian sweet soy sauce. I couldn't find it here, so I added a little sugar to my Braggs amino/soy sauce and called it good.)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp allspice
1 Tbsp grated nutmeg (ideally fresh, but mine wasn't)
2 Tbsp prepared mustard (I used a dijon)
handful of diced bread crumbs
dash of Tabasco sauce
1 tsp salt

To Wrap and Bake
oil or butter for greasing
1 egg, beaten
15 sheets of puff pastry, thawed... TAKE NOTE: This is an Irish recipe. Before this, I had never, ever bought frozen puff pastry before. At the store, the boxes each contained TWO sheets of pastry. I couldn't believe I was expected to buy 7+ boxes of pastry. It seemed inconceivable. And really expensive. And I wasn't going to do it. This resulted in a bit of grocery paralysis, as I already had all the other ingredients required in my basket. Finally, the price decided it for me. I would buy two boxes, four sheets total, and see what happened. What happened is I discovered that ONE U.S. pastry sheet apparently equals FOUR Irish pastry sheets. So don't buy 7+ boxes. Either make your own (which is easy as it turns out), or buy two boxes and cut each sheet into quarters.

What to do...

1) First, make the filling: Combine all filling ingredients in a big bowl and mix thoroughly. You may want to use your hands to get a good mix. For the bread crumbs, add only as much as necessary to make the filling smooth and consistent, but not too moist and definitely not sticky.

2) Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (The original recipe states that you can alternatively grease the baking sheets. This would keep the buns from sticking, but I recommend using the parchment paper, as it will absorb a bit of the excess grease from the buns. A greased baking sheet will not...)

3) For each pastry sheet, make a "sausage" of the ground meat mixture. Fold the pastry around the mixture and press the edge firmly with your fingertips, then crimp with fork. Continue until all meat and pastry sheets are used. IMPORTANT NOTE: In Van Boven's recipe picture, the ends of the buns are not crimped. If you look at mine, you will see the ends are crimped. I crimped because there was enough pastry to do so, but I highly suggest not crimping the ends unless you are taking the buns on your ski trip. My feeling is that the end crimping held in excess grease from the meat. Without the end crimp, the grease could have drained out and been absorbed by the parchment paper. They still taste great crimped... but again, higher cal.

4) Arrange the rolls on the lined baking sheets and brush them with the egg. Bake 25 - 30 mins, until golden brown.

Yvette Van Boven suggests eating the buns with an apple & tomato chutney. I haven't made this yet, and the buns were great without it!