Few bakery treats are as iconic in the UK as a warm Greggs sausage roll. With its light, flaky golden pastry wrapped around a soft, savoury pork filling, it's become a favourite for breakfast, lunch, or a quick snack on the go.

While Greggs keeps its exact recipe a closely guarded secret, this homemade version has been carefully developed to recreate the flavour, texture, and appearance of the original as closely as possible using readily available ingredients. Follow the recipe and step-by-step instructions below to make delicious copycat Gregg's sausage rolls fresh from your own oven.

For a more traditional sausage roll follow the link.

The recipe on this page was formulated from internet research, Gregg's website and the nutrition PDF which they provide that gives the break down of every product they sell in their stores into the basic macro ingredients. The sausage roll by weight is 53% pastry and 47% filling, with approx 22% pork. The Gregg's sausage roll is approx 104 g and 6 inches long.

This recipe is only for the meat filling, the puff pastry used was a store bought product. It came in a sheet which was 10 x 14 inches which was suitable for making 12 sausage rolls 3 1/3 inches long. In hindsight I could have cut the pastry differently and made 8 x 5 inche sausage rolls which would have been closer to the Gregg's version. This is not really an issue because factory made puff pastry is usually very good and it is not really the main feature of their sausage rolls.

This is the ingredient list for 12 x 3.3 inch sausage rolls (or 8 x 5 inch), I used 454 grams of store bought ground pork which is 1 lb. This makes just about the right amount of filling for 1 pack of store puff pastry. Using the % amounts you can scale this up to make whatever amount you need, and of couse you will need more puff pastry.

Meat Filling

Puff Pastry

1 pack of store bought puff pastry approx 10 x 14 inches, you can use this to make either 12 x 3.3 or 8 x 5 inch sausage rolls.

You can see from the ingredient list that it's quite big, but the things to note are the rusk or breadcrumbs and the fresh onion, other than those they are what you will find in many recipes. The big difference in the Gregg's sausage roll is that the filling is finely ground so much so that it more resembles the texture of a hot dog. I believe this plays a large part in what gives it the characteristic bite feel.

• Add the ice water to the rusk and let it hydrate for a few minutes
• Add all the ingredients into a bowl and lightly hand mix so that everything is combined
• Transfer the mix to a food processor, and process until you get a somewhat fine mixture but do not over process
• Transfer mixture back into a bowl and place in fridge to chill down, the processing tends to heat it up a little.
• Split the filling up into 4 equal parts and hand roll out into a roll about 10 inch's long. After the processing the filling comes quite sticky so you should use a little flour on the table and your hands, this helps a lot.
• The puff pastry needs to be taken out of the freezer at the right time and allowed to warm up sufficient so that it can be unrolled but avoid letting it get to room temp or it will become too soft and unworkable. I cut my sheet into 4 pieces 10 x 3.5 inchs.
• Use the filling rolls and form a 10 inch sausage roll, I then cut each one into 3
• Transfer to a lined baking sheet and using a sharp knife make diagonal slits across the top.
• Egg wash using just the egg yolk, 2 tsp of water and a pince of salt, beat very well with a fork. Do not apply too much egg wash or it will burn in the oven.
• Preheat the oven to 400 F and bake for about 20-25 minutes or golden brown, watch carefully because at this temperature it is very easy to over bake.
• They are very hot out of the oven so you will need to wait at least 10 minutes before trying to eat them.

I thought that these Gregg's copycat sausage rolls were very good, the filling was moist, soft and had a delicious taste. The puff pastry was of course delicious as well but I can't take any credit for that. I've not been to England for a few years and I can't remember what a Gregg's sausage roll tastes like so it's impossible to do a side by side comparison.

It should be noted that I actually made rolls, Gregg's fold the pastry over and then crimp one edge, so they actually become quite flat looking and more of a bar shape. So this is why they don't look the same.

If you are really into sausage rolls it's worth the extra effort to follow a recipe like this one and process the filling, use fresh diced onion and soak the rusk, it definitely makes a difference.

Otherwise just make bog standard sausage rolls, which are still very good.

The recipe on this page makes 942 g of sausage roll, which is equivalent to 9 standard Gregg's sausage rolls. The cost of the pork and pastry were $7.28 so the cost is approx $0.80 each. In the UK a standard Gregg's sausage roll in a high street bakery is $1.80 so it's definitely much cheaper to make your own.

Here is the ingredient list for a Gregg's sausage roll, so you can decide which is better for you.