Vegetarian 'Sausage Rolls'

These make delicious party snacks and go well with chutney recipes. They can be frozen before cooking and then glazed and cooked from frozen for about 30-35 minutes.

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This recipe is taken from Delia Smith’s Christmas and Delia's Vegetarian Collection.

Method

For the pastry, the butter needs to be rock-hard from the fridge, so weigh out the required amount, wrap it in a piece of foil, then return it to the freezing compartment for 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. When you take the butter out of the freezer, open it up and use some of the foil to hold the end with. Then dip the fat in the flour and grate it on a coarse grater placed in the bowl over the flour. Keep dipping the butter down into the flour to make it easier to grate.

At the end you will be left with a pile of grated butter in the middle of the flour, so take a palette knife and start to distribute it into the flour (don't use your hands), trying to coat all the pieces of butter with flour until the mixture is crumbly. Next, add enough cold water to form a dough that leaves the bowl clean, using your hands to bring it all gently together. Put the dough into a polythene bag and chill it for 30 minutes in the fridge.

For the filling, simply place all the filling ingredients in a mixing bowl, season well and mix very thoroughly.Then roll out the pastry on a floured surface to form an oblong (as thin as you can). Cut this oblong into three strips and divide the filling also into three, making three long rolls the same length as the strips of pastry (if it's sticky, sprinkle on some flour).

Place one roll of filling on to one strip of pastry. Brush the beaten egg along one edge, then fold the pastry over and seal it as carefully as possible. Lift the whole thing up and turn it so the sealed edge is underneath. Press lightly and cut the rolls obliquely, so that they form little diamond shapes. Snip each one on the top in three places with the end of some scissors, then brush with beaten egg. Repeat all this with the other portions of filling and pastry. Bake, on greased baking sheets, on the top shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes. Then leave them to cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight tin (that is, if they're not all eaten before you get the chance!).