Advent Recipe Day Three: Sausage Rolls

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the shallots. Cover and cook over moderate heat for 5 minutes, or until softened. Remove from the pan and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Put the sausage mince in a bowl and add the shallots, 5 berries mix and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Roll the sausage mince out with well-floured palms on a well-floured surface to a long rope 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick. Transfer to a lightly floured tray and chill while the pastry is being prepared.

Roll the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a long rectangle 3 mm (⅛ inch) thick and at least 10 cm (4 inches) wide. Trim the edges to neaten. Lay the rope of sausage mince down the length of the pastry to one side of the centre, and trim off the excess pastry at the two ends. Brush the smaller width of visible pastry next to the sausage mince with beaten egg and fold the larger piece of pastry over the sausage mince to enclose it. Lightly press together the two pastry edges to seal. Trim the edges to neaten. With a lightly floured, thin sharp knife, cut into eight individual sausage rolls. Make three diagonal slits on top of each roll through to the meat to decorate, but also to allow the excess steam to escape. Place on a baking tray that has been lightly dampened with cold water. Brush with beaten egg, avoiding the open cut edges or they will seal during baking and prevent the pastry from rising. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to hot 220°C (425°F/Gas 7). Brush the pastry again with the beaten egg and bake in the top half of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until well risen, crisp and golden brown. Serve hot or cold.

Make mini sausage rolls for serving with cocktails or try interesting variations to the filling by adding herbs or chopped sun-dried tomatoes to the sausage mince.

For another variation, hard boil and shell quail eggs. Flatten the sausage meat and arrange the eggs in a line down the centre. Fold and shape the sausage mince around them.

The bases of these sausage rolls will be dark brown.