Sausage Bites Appetizer

About This Sausage Roll Recipe

In a nutshell you will bake pieces of sausage wrapped in a mantle of soft, buttery dough and serve them with your choice of dipping sauce(s).

The little golden bites are perfect to enjoy with ales and lagers at home, or to take along to picnics and potlucks. In summer we love to bring some with us when headed to beer gardens or smaller breweries without food service. 

To Make Easy Sausage Bites You Will Need

Buttery dough. To simplify things use a store-bought sheet of crescent dough. Buy the kind that is not perforated for making actual crescents. Usually it is labeled as 'dough sheet'. If you'd rather make your own, do so in advance - we like this recipe. 

Sausage. Pre-cooked works best for obvious reasons - it can be smoked or simply boiled. If you purchase raw sausage cook it ahead of time (boil, pan-fry or grill). 

Egg. To make egg wash with a bit of water or a bit of milk or beer for a more flavorful option.

Spices/Dried herbs. To sprinkle over the buttery dough before you bake.

Step-by-Step Sausage Rolls

For this post we made bratwurst bites using Bavarian pork brats, very finely ground, exquisitely flavored and pre-cooked. To keep up with the German theme we added a bit of Bavarian lager to the egg wash and sprinkled caraway seeds over the dough, then served with all German dips.

• Step 1. Take out the crescent dough from its tube and spread it flat over a cutting board. Cook the sausage if you didn't buy pre-cooked. Preheat your oven to 350 F or 375 F depending on how strong it is.

• Step 2. Place a sausage link in the middle of each quadrant of the rectangle shaped dough and cut the outlines of the quadrants as shown above (#2). Roll to wrap each sausage link leaving the seam side facing down, then cut in bite-sized pieces (#3 and #4).

• Step 3. Transfer the dough wrapped sausage bites onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Beat and egg with a tablespoon of water, beer or milk and brush each piece. Sprinkle with herbs/spices and bake.

Serving Tips for Sausage Roll Bites

This recipe as written serves four as an appetizer but to be safe budget one sausage link per person - people tend to devour these and we've certainly been known to make more sausage bites disappear than we'd like to admit. 

While the sausage bites are in the oven prepare a serving dish along with dipping sauces. Beer cheese is always a great option.

They are best when still warm, but still really, really good after they have cooled down. 

This version of sausage bites is made with flavorful finely ground Bavarian bratwurst, sprinkled with caraway seeds and presented with complementary dipping sauces - the iconic German curry ketchup, beer mustard and honey mustard. 

Vegetarian Sausage Bites  

Use your favorite vegetarian sausage. We love meat but have made these for company with Field Roast vegetarian apple and sage links and they turned out great.