Smoked saplate filled with sausage rolls and a plate with a sausage roll cut open to show cross sectionusages wrapped in a pillowy slighty sweet dough

Texas-Style Sausage Rolls – a.k.a. Kolaches

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Early morning fishing trips, weekend drives, or lazy Saturdays in Texas often meant a special trip to the local donut shop to pick up a dozen or so sausage rolls – pillows of slightly sweet dough wrapped around bites of salty, savory, and sometimes spicy, sausage.

Cliff Notes:
Make the yeast dough, let rise; roll out dough to 1/4″ and cut into strips the width of the sausages and long enough to wrap around the sausage 1 1/2 times; brush with egg wash; bake @ 375° for 15-20 minutes.

Make It Your Own:
– Use different kinds of smoked sausages … jalapeno & cheese, andouille, and Italian would all be delicious ….
– Instead of sausage, use ham or roast beef or pulled pork.
– If using a different filling, brush the tops with a compound butter, such as garlic butter or chili butter.

There’s no one right place to go – whether your run into Dales Donuts No. 9 on Camp Bowie in Fort Worth or one of the kolache shops along Highway 35 in West, or any of the millions of other little strip mall donut shops scattered about, you almost can’t go wrong when you have a bag full of Texas Style Sausage Rolls nearby.

Unfortunately, the rest of the country (looking at you Washington State), hasn’t discovered the magic, so, like so many of our other favorite tastes of Texas, the only way we’re able to enjoy the sausage rolls of our memories is by making them ourselves. This dough recipe is slightly modified from The Homesick Texan’s kolache recipe and perfectly captures the soft texture and sweet flavor we crave. If you make a batch on the weekend, you can store the extras (stop laughing … there might be a few leftover after the first day) in a the fridge and heat them for about 30 seconds in the microwave as you’re running out the door in the morning.

Or for a different addition to your appetizer spread, pile them high on a platter and serve them next to a dish of Jalapeno Popper Dip, for the ultimate indulgent party snack.

You really DO need to try these, but don’t settle for just following the recipe …
customize them to your tastes – use a flavored sausage (I used jalapeno cheddar), add pieces of cheese, or use leftover roast or ham instead of sausage … let your imagination create your own deliciousness!


Texas Style Sausage Rolls

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