Brixton advent calendar: day 16

ROSIE’S DELI CAFÉ SAUSAGE ROLLS

Makes about 20

Here’s our delicious sausage roll recipe. The apple adds a little sweetness and we love Michael’s sausages at Rosie’s so couldn’t do it without a little bit of his magic! The pastry is a quick flaky pastry but you could just as easily use some shop bought puff pastry, about 400g of it. These are going to be coming out of the oven on Christmas day at my house, steaming and golden.

175g butter

225g plain flour

a generous pinch of salt

500g sausagemeat, from Michael at Dombey’s

½  an apple, grated

½ tsp ground cinnamon

lots of freshly ground pepper

1 egg, beaten

Measure out your butter and wrap in foil. Place in the freezer for about 40 minutes so that it is firm. Now, using the foil to hold the butter, grate into a bowl with your flour and salt. Use a knife to coat the butter entirely in flour. But don’t use your hands because they are warm and will soften the butter. Drizzle in to this some cold water to draw the pastry together and then at the last quickly use your hands to form a ball. Chill for 20 minutes, wrapped in cling film.

Butter a couple of baking sheets and preheat the oven to 220C. Next, mix together the sausagemeat with the apple, cinnamon and pepper in a big bowl. You can knead with your fists for a bit. Divide into two and roll into long sausages. Now flour a worktop for your pastry. Again divide into two. Roll each sheet of pastry into a rectangle so that it is wide enough to go more than once around the rolled sausage meat and of the same length. Place the sausage meat to one side, leaving enough pastry at the shorter side to bind. Brush this with egg. Pull the pastry over and press down to the other side. Chop into 3 “ lengths. Repeat with the remaining sausagemeat and pastry. Place the sausage rolls on your baking trays and then brush each with beaten egg, brushing the ends as well as the tops. Place in the oven for 20 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack when they are golden and crisp. Serve whilst still warm.