When I was younger, Christmas Day had a set routine. It wasn’t timed to military precision, it just flowed.  We weren’t allowed up before 7am.  We’d all open our stockings only may parents bed (Note: impressive as I have three siblings).  Then Mum would cook the world’s largest breakfast.  Then presents after breakfast.  Then Christmas dinner. Then in the afternoon she would fill our dining table with a buffet that could feed at least 87,000 people. She’d cook whole hams, there would be cold cuts, all the accompanying pickles, hot bread rolls, crudites and dips, literally everything.  I don’t quite know how she does it.  I’m 90% convinced that she is in fact a wizard.

I do not possess the same skills. I am rubbish at buffet preparation. We have people over this Christmas Day and I think all I’m going to manage to stretch to is a couple of sheets of these sausage rolls, enough champagne to sink the navy and some horrible rounds of Cards Against Humanity. Actually, that sounds like a good party…

We’re looking at sausage rolls, spiced with all-spice and clementine zest, little tart bursting cranberries, wrapped up snug in a puff pastry duvet.

Ingredients
600gr minced pork (20% fat)
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
1/2 small white onion, grated
1 small red apple, grated
1/4 tsp ground all-spice
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp black pepper
2tsp sea salt
60gr cranberries, sliced
Zest of 1 clementine
1 x 375r pack read rolled puff pastry
1 egg, beaten (for glazing)

Method
1, Preheat your oven to 180 o/c and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
2, Add the pork, garlic, onion, apple, the all-spice, sage, pepper and salt into a large mixing bowl and mix well – best way to do this is with your hands.  Add in the cranberries and clementine zest and mix this in well too. (At this point, I fry off a small lump of the filling to check for seasoning)
3, Cut the pre-rolled puff pasty horizontally so you have two long strips and halve the pork mixture between the two strips and evenly lay it down the centre. Fold over one side of the pastry, egg wash the other side of the pastry and fold over the other side.  It should overlap. Carefully roll it over so the seam is on the bottom. You should be left with two long sausage rolls.

4, Using a sharp knife, cut the long sausage roll into 4-5cm slices and space them apart onto your baking sheet.  Egg wash wash one.
5, Bake for 20 to 25minutes or until the pastry is golden and the pork filling is completely cooked through.  As we’re not using sausage meat, you are going to get a little bit of leakage.  I drained mine off half way through or else the bottoms get slightly soggy.