Sausage Palmiers

These savoury palmiers are really just up market sausage rolls. Quick and easy to make and with less pastry, so a bit healthier as well. They are a great little canapé to have in store as they can be pulled out of the freezer and cooked from frozen in about 20 minutes.

Ingredients - makes approximately 45 palmiers

320g pack puff pastry

400g sausage meat (I used 1 pack of 6 Cumberland sausages)

2-3 tsp fennel

75g finely grated parmesan

1 egg

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp sesame seeds

Method

Make the egg wash by lightly beating the egg in a small bowl, adding a pinch of salt and then sieving it into another bowl.

Mix the sausage meat with the fennel seeds and grated parmesan. Season well (cook a little piece of the sausage filling in a frying pan to check for seasoning)

Open out the pastry on a lightly floured board and brush the uppermost side with a little of the sieved egg wash.

As evenly as possible, cover the pastry with the sausage meat, leaving a 1cm margin round the edges. Rolling the sausage meat very lightly with a rolling pin can help.

Starting at one long side, carefully roll one half of the pastry towards the middle to make a long cylinder.

Repeat with the other side so that you now have two long cylinders facing each other.

Brush with a little more egg wash and gently squeeze the two rolled sides together.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds and chill for at least an hour to firm up.

When the sausage roll comes out of the fridge, gently ease it into a neater shape if necessary.

With a very sharp knife cut off the ends and then cut thin slices of about 0.75cm. Chill until ready to cook or open freeze at this stage.

Cook, well spaced out for about 15 minutes at 190°c until golden brown and cooked through.

Cook from frozen for 20 minutes at 190°c. Check they are piping hot before serving.