Super Flaky Sausage Plait
To be honest the titles a bit of a lie- A:The sausage isn't plaited and B:The pastry isn't plaited (its more of a fold sort of thing). Even so, one thing that's no lie is that this makes a perfect lunch. The buttery, crisp pastry which surrounds the awesome meaty filling is truly excellent-one of the only things that you can buy in a shop which matches the quality of homemade. In addition, the filling could be rolled into a large sausage shape and baked on its own then sliced for a unique sandwich filling. Of course, you could make your own puff pastry but seriously-why? One tip I would recommend is buying all butter puff pastry as it really does give a much better flavour than margarine.
Ingredients:
450g sausage meat OR the meat from 6 fat sausages
50g finely chopped sundried tomato
1tbsp dried mixed herbs
1x375g packet all butter puff pastry
plain flour-for dusting
1 beaten egg or a little milk to glaze
salt and pepper
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C/200fan/Gas7
Measure the sausage meat, tomato and herbs into a bowl and mix until well combined.
Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface into a 20x40cm rectangle to around the thickness of a £1 coin then transfer it to a sheet of baking paper to fit your tray.
Put the sausage meat lenghways in the middle of the pastry leaving about 1/3 of the pastry on each side and about 5cm on each end.
Brush the pastry all over with your chosen glaze then fold the ends up to cover the end of the sausage meat filling. Then, leaving a gap of 1cm between the end of the cuts and the filling, snip cuts into the pastry about 2cm wide on either side of the filling.
Fold the strips onto the top of the filling alternating from side to side to create a 'plait' pattern.
Glaze the pastry all over with egg or milk, transfer the plait to a baking tray then bake for 35 minutes until golden on the top and crisp on the bottom.
Enjoy!
The Food Kid