The Ultimate Sausage Roll by Paul Hollywood

Ingredients (Serves 6)

Rough puff pastry

• 225g plain flour, plus extra to dust
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 200g cold, unsalted butter, diced
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 180–200ml cold water

For the filling

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 400g sausage meat (or your favourite sausages, skinned)
• 125g Stilton, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
• Pinch of white pepper

To finish

• 2 egg yolks, beaten to glaze
• 2 teaspoons nigella seeds
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Method

1. To make the pastry, put the flour, salt and butter into a bowl. Mix the lemon juice with the water and add three-quarters of the liquid to the bowl. Gently stir until the mixture comes together to form a lumpy dough, adding the remaining liquid if required. Don’t knead or work too much – you want lumps of butter through the dough.

2. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and flatten to a rectangle. Using a rolling pin, roll into a narrow rectangle around 2.5cm thick. Fold one-third of the dough up on itself, then the opposite third down over that, as if folding a business letter. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for at least 20 minutes.

3. Unwrap the pastry and repeat, rolling the pastry at 90° to the original roll, to make a rectangle 40 x 15cm, then folding as before. Wrap and chill for 20 minutes. Repeat the process twice more, chilling the dough for 20 minutes between folds.

4. Heat your oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6 and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

5. For the filling, heat the oil in a small frying pan over a medium heat, add the onion and cook for 7–10 minutes until softened and just turning golden brown. Leave to cool.

6. In a bowl, mix the sausage meat with the cooled onion, crumbled Stilton, thyme and white pepper. With floured hands, roll the filling into a 20cm long sausage and rap tightly in cling film. Chill for 30 minutes.

7. Roll out the pastry to a rectangle (30cm x 20cm) and trim the edges to neaten. Place on the baking tray and chill for 20 minutes. Unwrap the sausage and lay it along the pastry rectangle, 6cm from one edge.

8. Brush the exposed pastry with beaten egg yolk, leaving the 6cm border clear. Fold the egg-washed pastry over the sausage filling to meet the border and encase the sausage filling. Press the edges firmly together. Press a floured fork firmly along the length of the sealed edge. You may need to keep dipping the fork in flour to stop it sticking.

9. Brush the sausage roll all over with more egg and score the pastry on the diagonal. Chill for 15 minutes. Heat your oven to 210°C/Fan 190°C/Gas 6. Brush the pastry again with egg, all over, then sprinkle with the nigella and sesame seeds. Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and crisp and the sausage meat is cooked through.

10. Leave to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with your favourite pickles and chutney.

Want more great recipes from Paul Hollywood? Then check out his latest book ‘Bake’ from Bloomsbury (£25). Photography by Haarala Hamilton.