I’m a big fan of bacon. I am. It’s so good. My kids love it too. But sometimes I want something a little different. And since we don’t like MSG, or NITRITES, or any of that other stuff that you may find in store-bought meat products, I like to make as much of our food at home as possible. Did you know that homemade breakfast sausages are easy to make? Well, now you do. Introducing: Homemade Apple Maple Breakfast Sausage Patties.
When I decided to make my own breakfast sausage, I scoured the internet for recipes. There are quite a few. It was really hard to decide what kind to make. But since I have a thing for savory sweet and since I had a HUGE bag of apples from a friend’s apple tree sitting on my kitchen floor, I decided to add maple and apples.
All I can say is….YUM! These mouth-watering little sausage patties are the perfect combo of salty and sweet. I literally had to stop myself from eating anymore so I could actually get the photos taken for this recipe. Little One was in the kitchen with me begging for “more, mama, please!” And please NOTE that I am using REAL maple syrup, not the artificially-flavored, high fructose corn syrup kind.
I only made one pound of sausage but next time I will double or triple the recipe. You can easily form the patties and freeze them for cooking up later on. Be sure to separate the layers with unbleached parchment paper (like this). Simply remove a couple from the freezer and fry them up, about 5 minutes in each side. Easy peasy protein snack or meal. Who doesn’t need some ready-to-go things for those busy days?
I recommend using high quality, humanely-raised meat from pigs that have been allowed to roam, enjoy the sunshine, and to forage. Please do not support factory-farmed pork. We are lucky here in Northern California to have several local farmers who raise good quality pork. Read more about eating pork HERE and HERE.

Homemade Maple Apple Breakfast Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1/4 medium onion
- 1 clove fresh garlic
- 1 medium apple, peeled, cored, and quartered
- 1 and 1/2 TBS REAL maple syrup (like this)
- 2 TBS fresh herbs, finely chopped (Basil, cilantro, oregano, parsley…whatever you have)
- 1 tsp celtic sea salt (I use this one)
- 1/2 tsp ground sage, dried (like this)
- 1 TBS coconut oil (like this), butter, or ghee (like this)
Instructions
- In a small food processor, puree onion and garlic. Add apple pieces and pulse until apple is broken up into tiny pieces but not pureed. (You can skip this step and just chop everything fine if you don’t mind chunks of onion, garlic, and apple. I prefer is a bit more incorporated.)
- Saute onion/garlic/apple mixture in 1 TBS of fat of choice over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until it softens and begins to brown a bit. Allow to cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, add maple syrup to ground pork and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the ingredients, including onion/garlic/mixture and mix well. I use my hands.
- Shape into desired sized patties and either fry up now or freeze for later. If freezing, separate layers with unbleached parchment paper.
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mmmmmm all looks so good.
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Katja! I make maple, apple breakfast sausage too!! We love it! Your recipe and pics look delicious!
I can’t wait to make these! Since I generally don’t eat/cook sausage, how long do you fry them for? Thanks!-H
The sausage patties cook rather quickly. A few minutes on each side if you have small patties. It’s easy to tell when they are done. Just cut one in half and if it’s cooked all the way through, it’s done. Enjoy!!
This recipe looks so good! I have never tried making sausage before. I really appreciate what you do…we get our meat from a local farmer as well and couldn’t be happier! I will be making these soon, thanks for the recipe!
You are welcome. I hope you enjoy the recipe. My kids love this sausage!
Does this recipe work well in caseings?
I have never tried it. Please let me know if you try it. 🙂
Works very well in the half inch casings just be sure not to over stuff or they split and I recommend natural casings for these
Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
These look so good. I have never made sausage so I would love to know specifically which herbs you used. Did you use a combo of all the ones you listed or just one? Thanks
I have used just basil before. I have done basil, oregano, and cilantro. I have done just cilantro. I have left it out before only because I forgot. 🙂 And it was still good. Hope that helps.
Oh these are so good!! I didn’t have dried sage so used lots of fresh sage. Actually my herbs were almost all sage with just a little rosemary and oregano because that is what’s in the garden. The flavor is perfectly savory/sweet. I cooked all of mine and will freeze them cooked just for ease of eating them later. Thanks for posting!
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I love fresh herbs from the garden. I’m glad that you liked them!
Thank you for such a delicious recipe! I used venison instead of pork, added flaxseed meal mixed with 1 Tbsp olive oil to make it stick (can’t eat eggs), used Italian herb mix for seasoning, and left out the syrup to make it Whole30 compliant. I have to say this is my new favorite breakfast food!
That sounds awesome. I’ve only had venison sausage one time in a stew, and it was delicious.
I love this sausage recipe! I have made this a few times and this past time I used to stuff some acorn squash – AMAZING!!!!
Acorn squash sausage sounds amazing. Going to try it soon! Thanks for the idea.
Had these for dinner tonight, delish! I used rosemary for the fresh herb, so good 🙂
Rosemary sounds so good in these. Will Have to try that. Glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
This recipe looks delicious AND it fits the paleo autoimmune protocol. So, thank you! I just started a weekly Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable through my blog, and I would love it if you linked up this recipe. I’m trying to expand resources for the AIP community. Here’s the link: http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2013/11/13/paleo-aip-recipe-roundtable-3/
I use ground Turkey since we don’t eat pork. Nice taste! if kids eat it, it’s a keeper!
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Wowzers!! I just made up a batch of these and not only is my tummy full but the house smells DELICIOUS! I used beef instead of pork and dried herbs instead of fresh and they were just so fantastic! One day, when I have my own little garden I will try these with fresh herbs, but it’s hard to wrap my mind around these little patties packing an even bigger punch!! Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for the feedback. So glad you liked them. My kids LOVE these!
These look amazing! I pinned it to make sometime. Thank you so much.
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I made these last weekend and they were so good. I didn’t have any maple syrup so I used honey. It was my first time cooking with ghee..I’m not sure that I like the taste, but I am going to give it another whirl. Thank you Katja for all of your recipes. Your blog is so inspiring and creative. 🙂
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Thanks so much for coming by and leaving feedback. You can use any fat that you like with this. I also love duck fat. Duck fat makes everything SO good!
Made this today. Dangerously Delish! ??
Yay! So glad you liked it.
This recipe looks awesome, I am sure you could make these into sausage links instead of patties.
Another option to freezi the patties and having to wait for them to completely thaw before cooking is to mix, make patties and fry up until just done. Let cool and freeze with parchment paper to separate. When you are ready for breakfast, take out the desired number of frozen patties, put them on a baking sheet and reheat at around 375 degrees. They will gently thawand then start to darken when done. I use my toaster oven and it works great!
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This recipe is so good! It was a hit for all at our family Christmas brunch. Thank you! I used rosemary for my “fresh herb” but it was just dried rosemary as I had no fresh herbs at the time.
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