Easy sausage rolls

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.

2. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface to a rectangle about 48x32cm/19x12½in. Bash the pastry with the rolling pin a bit (puff pastry is made of fine layers and normally you have to be very delicate with it, but for sausage rolls the pastry needs to be slightly puffed, but not too much, so bashing it with a rolling pin reduces the amount it puffs up).

3. Cut the pastry rectangle in half lengthways, then cut both smaller rectangles into 8 equal sections. You will now have 16 rectangles.

4. Cut the large rectangle in half lengthways, then cut both smaller rectangles into eight equal sections. You now have 16 rectangles in total.

5. Brush one end of each rectangle with a little of the beaten egg. Lay a piece of sausage at the other end, then season the sausage with salt and freshly ground black pepper and sprinkle with thyme leaves. Roll the sausage up in the pastry to enclose and repeat with all the sausages.

6. Put the sausage rolls in the fridge for 20 minutes for the pastry to harden. Once the pastry is hard, remove the sausage rolls from the fridge and score the tops with a sharp knife for decoration, or prick with a fork.

7. Brush well all over with the rest of the beaten egg.

8. Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown and crisp. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before serving. They are delicious fresh from the oven, but can also be eaten cold.