An annual tradition in our household is the making of worstenbroodjes, which are homemade sausages wrapped in a yeasted bread dough, then baked. These are typically eaten during the holidays in the Netherlands, and it was on my first Christmas visit that I got my first taste of these delicious little rolls. Of course one of the first things I did when I got home was to find a recipe online so that I could keep making them in the US.
In many ways, worstenbroodjes are like the Dutch version of a tamale: they’re best made in large batches, with many people, and savored for as long as possible. This year, in addition to my husband, my son helped out. He really likes punching down bread dough and rolling each portion into a ball in preparation for making the actual sausage roll. He’s four, and lasted quite a while with the helping (over 2 hours, actually!), which just tells you how much he loves helping with bread dough.
As time consuming as it is, (it took about 3 hours for the 3 of us to get it all done (not counting the rising times) the 39 rolls we got out of it were totally worth it! To be perfectly honest, we started to get a little punchy, and the sausages may or may not have started to be called meat turds…with nothing but love, I swear! Anyway, of course we had to sample a few fresh from the oven for dinner. Worstenbroodjes are delicious little sausage rolls, and one of my favorite ways to involve the whole family in my baking.
