Week 8 of Bake Off saw the bakers tackle Free From Week with a variety of challenges tackling baking without dairy, meat-based products or with gluten. The signature saw the bakers make dairy-free ice cream sandwiches, the technical saw the bakers made vegan sausage rolls using mushrooms for the filling and the showstopper saw the bakers made a gluten-free celebration cake. I decided to put my own spin on the technical, making an alternative filling with beans. These are my Vegan Spicy Bean ‘Sausage’ Rolls!

With Christmas coming up, these would make a great alternative vegan or vegetarian party food for any Christmas gathering. What’s more, these can be made ahead and baked off fresh. The puff pastry is a great shortcut as it’s already vegan – I buy my puff pastry from Aldi. This means you can make so many vegan bakes using this puff pastry and these vegan sausage rolls combine one of my favourite vegetarian things to eat with puff pastry!

The filling is made with lots of flavours and spices. The addition of breadcrumbs mixed with water and rolled oats provide some moisture, in the same way it is done in some meatball/meatloaf recipes. I use gochugaru which are Korean chilli flakes but you can use any chilli flakes for the bean mixture. Coriander is a flavour that I enjoy and goes well here but you can choose to omit it. I would replace it with another herb or leafy green as it adds such an appetising appearance with the green flecks.

For the pastry:

• 1 x 375g pack of vegan ready-rolled puff pastry
• 50ml sweetened soy milk, for binding
• Smoked paprika, for decoration
• Toasted sesame seeds, for decoration

For the spicy bean filling:

• 1 x 400g tin of black beans
• 1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans
• 1 tbsp garlic granules
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 2 tsp mixed herbs
• Half a red onion, finely diced
• 2 tbsp gochugaru (or any chilli flakes)
• 25g coriander, finely chopped, including stems
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs, mixed with 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp rolled oats
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tsp ground pepper

To make the filling, drain and rinse both the black beans and cannellini beans until the water runs clear. Set aside to continue to drain.

In a large mixing bowl, place the rest of the ingredients for the bean filling and mix until even. Add in the drained beans and use your hands to crush the mixture together, leaving some beans whole and some beans completely mashed. Continue to mix until the mixture is an even colour and has come together into one large ball. Divide the mixture into 3 equal portions.

Unroll the puff pastry and trim the puff pastry into 3 strips, longer than they are wide. Place the spicy bean filling on the pastry in a sausage about 4cm wide along the entire length of the pastry, ensuring it is even thickness along the entire sausage. Brush the exposed pastry with the soy milk and fold over the pastry, pressing the pastry together well with a fork. Transfer to a baking parchment lined tray. Repeat with the rest of the pastry and filling. Freeze the roll for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 200°C fan. 

Slice each roll into 3 equal pieces and place on a separate lined baking tray. Take a knife and create slices on the diagonal on the surface for decoration. Brush the entire sausage roll with the soy milk and then sprinkle over some toasted sesame seeds and some paprika.

Bake the sausage rolls for around 25 minutes until the pastry has risen and has turned golden brown and the bases are well cooked.

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel and make sure to check out my most recent recipe for my Caramel Baked Cheese Tart!

Also if you have enjoyed my recipes and my content, consider supporting me on Patreon; there you can find more information about Patreon, how you can support me and the blog and the perks that come along with that. Check out my Patron Appreciation Page while you’re down here too!