There are some foods that have the power to evoke a flood of memories, don’t you think? Certain dishes that just remind you of home or a certain place or time in your life that you loved. Sometimes those memories aren’t just of a certain place or time, sometimes they are of a particular person and sometimes they are of the physical act of cooking. What dishes or people do you think of? For me it has to be my gluten free sausage rolls.

Perhaps it’s the memory of standing on a wooden stool, learning to make your Nonna’s secret pasta sauce recipe. Maybe it’s taking that first heaping spoon full of your Gran’s pavlova piled high with strawberries, kiwi fruit and passionfruit pulp after Christmas lunch, surrounded by the whole family. Or it could be the smell of freshly baked bread or cookies that seemed to perpetually waft through your Mum’s home.

Food has a magical way of transporting us 

That’s the beauty of food and one of the reasons why I enjoy cooking and baking so much. It’s also one of the things that I truly hope to bring to life for my own child and eventually hopefully, grandchildren.

For me though there are lots of dishes that have powerful memories. But there is one particularly strong one that I think will stick with me well into my final years. Something that without a doubt makes me smile every single time I make or eat a recipe like this. And that is standing in my Great Grandmother’s kitchen over the Summer school holidays, fighting with my sister for bench space, making homemade sausage rolls.

Nothing compares to homemade Sausage Rolls

And I’ve been making them consistently throughout the years since I was all of 10 or so years old. The problem came of course when I was diagnosed as Gluten Intolerant, at first I just presumed I’d be able to make my nanna’s glorious sausage rolls just with different pastry and being careful with the ingredients. But alas, my first and pretty much every attempt since then has been a failure. And that sadly comes down to one factor. The Pastry.

Gluten free pastry just cannot replicate a good, honest puff pastry (even a frozen one!). Or so I thought. As I became more knowledgeable with gluten free flours and began experimenting with gluten free baking I realized it might not be lost to me completely. If you have a quick google there are very few people, food bloggers or chef’s that can make a decent gluten free puff pastry and that sadly is because it just doesn’t seem to work a lot of the time.

I have tried dozens of recipes with some of the oddest ingredients and yet have failed every time. It was then that I truly thought my homemade sausage rolls would be lost to me forever…. well unless I wanted to make them with gluten pastry and totally poison myself. But the point was I would never again eat these delectable things.

Homemade Gluten Free Sausage Rolls with store bought pastry?

Yes it can be done!

That is until recently. When I came across a decent looking frozen puff pastry at the supermarket. Now I’m not normally a big fan of frozen gluten free food as they tend to be so full of rubbish and fat that they’re not worth eating, and frankly taste horrid too. But I thought what the hell! Nanna J never made fancy pastry let’s give this one a shot!

So I did. But on something totally different, a dessert that is quite honestly so delectably bad for you but so freaking delicious you may just want it night after night. I’ll save that recipe for another time though! The fact was though, that it worked and I thought maybe, just maybe it might work for sausage rolls too.

Whats the name of this fabled perfect gluten free puff pastry I hear you screaming? Well it’s Simply Wize. They actually have a huge range of awesome products (hello spring rolls anyone?!). But their frozen puff pastry just can’t be beaten! I swear it has made perfect gluten free sausage rolls for me more times than I can count now. I just can’t stop making them!! (Of course no one in my family is complaining)

BUT HOW DO I MAKE THE DAMN GLUTEN FREE PASTRY WORK STACEY! 

Yes I know, the sight of this tiny piece of hard gluten free puff pastry is kind disappointing at first, but please don’t stop now. There are a couple of tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years on how to MAKE gluten free puff pastry work for you and I’ve put it all in an awesome video over on my YouTube Channel. You can check it out below.

 But trust me. Once you nail these few tricks with the pastry and whip up a batch of my decadent filling you’ll be convinced. Gluten free sausage rolls cannot only be done…. but they can be done so damn well NO ONE will be able to tell they’re gluten free! 

I swear to you these are honestly the best homemade gluten free sausage rolls you’ll ever eat…. not a small statement I know! And you will never eat one of those frozen store bought ones again! Hell, you don’t even need tomato sauce with them! Hah! How blasphemous of me, how un-Australian!!

[[ recipeID=recipe-9l456bewg, title=The Best Gluten Free Sausage Rolls ]]

Now don’t forget to check out my delicious Gluten Free Pasties recipe while you’re here. Using similar techniques to what you used here you can create not one but two delicious and easy Gluten Free recipes!