Celebrate Bourke Street Bakery’s 21 years by cooking its signature sausage roll

Living through a bakery golden age that we are makes it difficult to comprehend that when Sydney’s Bourke Street Bakery opened in 2004 on the Surry Hills street that gave it its name, quality sourdough wasn’t available in every Melbourne and Sydney suburb.

It was also a challenge to find high-grade pies and sausages rolls, so when people heard both were available at the tiny inner-east corner shop, they drove from everywhere to buy the goods.

In fact, years after, people were still making the trek. “Rain, hail or shine, the queue outside Bourke Street Bakery never abates,” Good Food wrote in 2013.

“Early risers line the pavement for dense almond croissants, while the sausage rolls – pork and fennel, or perhaps lamb, harissa and almond – have their own cultish following. And let’s not even talk about the queues on Sundays.”

Fast-forward to 2026 and founders David McGuinness and Paul Allam have 13 Sydney stores and two in New York. The first international shop opened in 2019 in Manhattan’s midtown.

“When I take a moment and think back to Surry Hills, it’s amazing, it feels a bit weird being here,” Allam told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2018 from the construction site in New York.

This year the bakery celebrates 21 years – an impressive milestone in Australia’s fickle hospitality scene. Also this year came the release of the 14th printing of its 2007-launched cookbook Bourke Street Bakery, which has sold more than 150,000 copies worldwide and been translated into Danish, Swedish, German and Russian.

In the first line in the original book’s foreword, McGuinness and Allam describe the bakery as “small, rustic, homely and timeless”. While the small part isn’t true any more, they reckon the other ideas “have held their own”.

“Bourke Street Bakery has always felt like a community bakery, and in some parts of Sydney where there’s an actual street named Bourke Street, people often think it’s the only one. We love when people say that!” they write in the 21st-anniversary edition.

Bourke Street Bakery happened because regulars wanted to replicate their signature dishes. “We were excited to be part of the Sydney and Australian food landscape, and soooo many people had asked us for the iconic pork and fennel sausage roll recipes and our heartbreaking creme brulee tart that it was time to put it in print. There would be more inspiration and recipes down the track but the magic in those early recipes still endures,” they write.

The pork and fennel sausage roll is still a hot seller in 2026. McGuinness and Allam say the trick to making a good sausage roll is using quality meat from a premium butcher, fresh flavourings and great puff pasty. “Rolling these savoury pastries by hand also helps.”

They knew people would like them but they didn’t anticipate how popular they’d be. “Sydneysiders are addicted to them.”

—Sarah Norris

Pork and fennel sausage rolls

INGREDIENTS

• 30ml (11⁄2 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 40g (31⁄2 tbsp) fennel seeds, finely chopped
• 4 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
• 150g brown onions, finely chopped
• 150g celery, finely chopped
• 150g carrots, finely chopped
• 1.2kg lean minced pork
• 40g dry breadcrumbs
• 20g (1 tbsp) salt
• 15g (3 tsp) white pepper
• 1 quantity puff pastry (see below for recipe), or 3 square sheets bought puff pastry
• egg wash for brushing
• fennel seeds, for sprinkling

Egg wash

• 1 egg
• 100ml milk
• a pinch of salt

METHOD

1. Put the pork mince into a large bowl and add the cooled vegetables, breadcrumbs, salt and white pepper. Using your hands, mix the meat quite forcefully for 3 minutes to thoroughly combine (this will also work the protein in the meat). At this stage it is best to roll up a little ball of the meat mixture and cook it in a hot frying pan for 2 minutes to check the flavour. You may find it is too salty, however once the mix is encased in pastry, the saltiness should even out. But if you cannot taste the salt at all then you need to add a pinch or two more.
2. Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle, about 92cm x 32cm. Cut the pastry into six rectangles about 15cm x 30cm.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C.
4. Make the egg wash. Put the egg, milk and salt in a bowl and whisk with a fork until well combined. Put aside.
5. Divide the filling mixture into six even-sized portions. On a clean work surface, roll each portion out into a 30cm log with a 3cm diameter. Place each log lengthways in the centre of a pastry rectangle and brush one long edge with egg wash. Firmly fold the pastry over, pressing to enclose the log tightly, leaving the ends open. Cut each roll into two even-sized pieces and place on baking trays lined with baking paper, seam side down. Brush the top of each roll with egg wash and sprinkle with fennel seeds.
6. Reduce the oven temperature to 190C and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until they are a golden-brown roll of steaming, oozing goodness.

Makes 12

Images and text from Bourke Street Bakery by Paul Allam and David McGuinness, photography by Alan Benson. Murdoch Books RRP $49.99.