Sausage Rolls

Shop-bought cold sausage rolls depress me. The meat and greasy, dry pastry look such a poor quality I can't even contemplate them. Meat is red not grey. Therefore, if you make these, the difference is so great you won't be able to tolerate bought ones.

I don't know why but shop-bought pastry used to be avoided by me. I was too much of a snob. But now, I try to have some in the freezer or fridge as often as possible because it is just so useful, and, let's be honest, I could never make puff pastry anywhere near as good, so why bother? 

1)Roll out your pastry to about a cm thickness, then take a wad of sausage meat, and spread it in a log neatly on the left side of the pastry. You could leave it there, but a nice festive addition I like to use is finely chopped sage and dried apricots, but you could use any other herb, sun-dried tomatoes- anything you like. Place them to the right of the log, almost under it then proceed rolling. This is easy if the pastry is still quite cold, but not left out so it goes difficult to handle. The time it takes to prepare the sausage meat should be enough to let the pastry soften. Unless you have ninja speed. Why are you reading this if you have ninja speed. Roll it up tightly, keeping it as round as possible as you go, then press the seam down. Some recipes will ask you to put the sausage meat in the middle of the pastry, then fold the side over, but then it's not a roll...It's a fold? Slice the log into whatever size you want, then place the rolls on a baking sheet and refrigerate for about 15 minutes, so they hold their shape.
2)Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and take your sausage rolls out of the fridge. Prick with a fork or slash the tops, then brush with egg wash (just a beaten egg), trying to not let it seep down the sides too much. Bake for about 20 minutes, until puffy and golden and serve whenever you like, cold or hot.