Josh's Sausage Rolls

STEP 1 — MAKE THE ROUGH PUFF PASTRY:
Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Take the cubed butter straight from the freezer and toss it through the flour so each piece is coated. Use a pastry scraper to flatten and press the cubes against the side of the bowl, but do not rub them in - you want visible flakes of butter, not crumbs. Mix the lemon juice into the cold water, then drizzle in just enough to bring the dough together with a few firm strokes of the scraper. Tip onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a rough rectangle, and roll out to a long rectangle roughly 15 × 40cm (6 × 16 inches). Book fold (fold both short ends to meet in the middle, then close like a book), wrap, and chill for 30 minutes. Repeat the roll and book fold three more times, chilling for at least 20 minutes between each turn. Final chill: 1 hour, or overnight. Generous chilling is the single biggest thing you can do to fix the gappy lamination Paul called out.

STEP 2 — SWEAT THE VEGETABLES:
Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the diced onion and a pinch of salt and cook gently for 5 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the shredded sprouts and cook for a further 3–4 minutes, just until they collapse and lose their raw bite. The pan should not colour. Tip out onto a plate and cool completely. Raw sprouts in a wrapped filling release water as they cook, which steams the meat and makes it dense - pre-cooking shifts that water out before it can wreck the texture.

STEP 3 — BUILD THE FILLING:
In a small bowl, soak the breadcrumbs in the cold milk for 5 minutes until they are evenly wet - this is your panade. In a large bowl, combine the pork sausage meat, turkey mince, cooled sprout-and-onion mixture, chopped chestnuts, diced apricots, sage, nutmeg, and a generous ½ tsp of salt with plenty of cracked black pepper. Add the soaked panade. Use a fork (not your hands) to fold everything together until just combined. Stop the moment it looks even. Cook off a teaspoonful in a small pan, taste, and adjust the seasoning. Cover and chill until needed. The panade keeps the meat juicy through the long bake; the fork prevents the over-mixing that left the original filling 'quite solid'.

STEP 4 — ROLL OUT THE PASTRY:
Divide the chilled rough puff into two equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time (keep the second in the fridge), roll out on a lightly floured surface to a long rectangle approximately 14 × 32cm (5½ × 12½ inches), about 3–4mm thick. Trim the edges square. Rotate the pastry 90° between rolls to keep the sheet even.

STEP 5 — PIPE AND SEAL AS A LONG LOG:
Mix the cranberry sauce with the orange zest in a small bowl. Halve the chilled filling. Spoon one half down the centre length of the first pastry rectangle, shaping it into an even sausage about 3cm (1¼ inch) in diameter. Run a stripe of the cranberry-orange jam along the top of the meat, pressing a shallow channel with the back of a spoon if needed to keep it in place. Brush one long edge of the pastry with egg wash. Lift the bare edge over the filling to meet the wash, pressing gently to seal. Roll the log a quarter turn so the seam sits underneath, then press all along the seam with the tines of a fork to crimp. Repeat with the second piece of pastry and the remaining filling. Building one long log per sheet means the meat is fully enclosed end-to-end - this is the core fix for the gappy lamination Paul flagged.

STEP 6 — CHILL, THEN SLICE:
Transfer both logs onto a parchment-lined tray. Brush the tops with egg wash. Chill, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes in the fridge or 15 minutes in the freezer, until the pastry is firm to the touch. Slice each log into 6 equal rolls (12 in total) using a sharp serrated knife in a single confident sawing motion - don't crush the lamination by pressing straight down. Arrange seam-side down on two parchment-lined heavy trays, leaving 4–5cm (1¾ inches) between each roll for puff.

STEP 7 — EGG-WASH AND BAKE:
Preheat the oven to 220°C / 425°F (200°C / 400°F fan), placing one of the heavy trays in the oven to heat up. Brush each chilled roll a second time with egg wash, scatter with flaky salt and sesame seeds (if using), and slash the top of each roll twice on the diagonal with the tip of a sharp knife. Slide the trays into the oven, transferring the rolls onto the pre-heated tray, and bake at 220°C / 425°F for 10 minutes, then drop the temperature to 200°C / 400°F and continue for a further 20–25 minutes until the pastry is deeply golden, the lamination is visibly puffed and the underside of one test roll is fully crisp when lifted. The internal temperature of the meat should read 75°C / 165°F. The hot opening drives the rise; the longer hold ensures the bottom and underneath layers fully cook through - the direct correction for Paul's 'it needed longer in the oven'.

STEP 8 — REST AND SERVE:
Cool on the trays for 5 minutes - the pastry crisps further as it sets, and the filling settles. Serve warm, with the remaining cranberry-orange jam on the side. They are also excellent at room temperature the next day.