Cranberry & Sausage Stuffing Logs (Oamc)

I made two of these gorgeous rolled stuffing logs, one for Thanksgiving and froze the second to serve with my Christmas meal. The entire recipe makes 2 stuffing logs and there will also be a third portion left to stuff a turkey with, or to bake in a casserole. If you only want to make 1 roll, simply divide most of the ingredients by 3, except for the apple, egg, and bacon - use 1 small egg, 1 small apple, and 12 pieces of bacon, cooking time will remain the same. A bit tricky to roll up, but the final product is worth all your hard work.You can substitute fresh red currants for the cranberries or use dried cranberries or dried cherries if you prefer. Also, if you only have dried herbs, that is fine.. just add dreid versions to taste, perhaps a few spoonfuls of each. This gets sliced and looks so lovely with the center of berries. Adapted from a version I found in Good Food magazine.

• Ready In: 2 hrs
• Serves: 32
• Yields: 2 rolls

Ingredients

• 1  tablespoon olive oil
• 1  onion, finely chopped
• 2  cooking apples, peeled, cored, chopped (approx 140/5oz each,such as Bramley or Granny Smith)
• 3 (450 g) packages  good-quality pork sausage, casings removed
•  salt, to taste
•  pepper, to taste
• 1  bunch fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• 1  bunch fresh sage, leaves roughly chopped
• 1  bunch fresh thyme, leaves stripped
• 1  large egg
• 100  g  fresh white breadcrumbs
• 175  g fresh cranberries or 175  g frozen cranberries
• 24  slices streaky bacon (American style bacon strips)
•  butter, for greasing

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, saute the onion until softened (about 5 min).
2. Squeeze the sausage meat from the sausages into a large bowl, then add all of the other ingredients (including the onions),EXCEPT the cranberries and streaky bacon, seasoning well; mix together well by hand.
3. (Weigh out 450g of the stuffing and mix a handful of the cranberries into it, then pack this up to use as stuffing for a turkey or to bake on its own. The rest will be used to make the two stuffing rolls).
4. To assemble each roll, butter and season a large sheet of foil. Stretch out the bacon rashers slightly with the back of a kitchen knife, then overlap 12 rashers on the foil making a big flat rectangle of bacon strips.
5. Spoon half of the stuffing mix evenly over the bacon, leaving a border of about 3cm. Scatter with half the cranberries, then pat the down with your fingers.
6. Tuck the long edges of the bacon over the stuffing; then, using the foil to help, roll the stuffing up into a log shape. Repeat to make a second roll. If you like things neat and tidy, you can also using a few pieces of kitchen twine to help hold the roll together.
7. Seal each log in greased foil.
8. (At this point you can freeze your logs up to 1 month. Thaw before serving and cook up to 1 day in advance, reheat before serving,or just roast on the day you are serving).
9. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Put the foil-wrapped rolls onto a roasting tin and roast for 45 minutes Unwrap, draining off any juice, then finish roasting for 15 mins until the bacon is crisp.
10. OAMC instructions:The rolls can be prepared up to 2 days ahead and kept, raw, in the fridge, or frozen for up to 1 month. Roast up to 1 day ahead, then reheat, wrapped in foil, for 30 mins while the turkey rests and your vegetables finish cooking. The third portion can be baked in a casserole using the same temp/times as the logs.