Vegetarian sausage rolls

With our little boy's birthday party approaching I've been thinking about kids finger food, particularly in winter. Not that it's been winter-ish here lately, a warm spell has seen us with temperatures in the low 20's (c). But I'm sure it will be chilly again soon.

I've been making an adapted version of Delia Smith's vegetarian sausage roll recipe for a few years now, and really enjoy it. Delia's recipe calls for a homemade flaky pastry, but mostly I use frozen puff pastry, which works well and takes a lot of time out of the prep. These make great after school snacks and can be carried around while playing (if you don't mind that kind of thing!).

Vegetarian sausage rolls

Filling:

275g fresh breadcrumbs*
225g tasty cheese, grated
1 small onion, grated
3 tablespoons cream
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon mustard powder
salt & pepper to taste

Pre-rolled frozen puff pastry sheets

Place all the filling ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Then place a sheet of pastry on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cut it into three strips and lay the filling in long rows along the centre of each strip.

Brush a little milk or water along one edge of each piece (to help the edge seal), then fold the pastry over and seal it as carefully as possible. Turn each roll over so the sealed edge is underneath. Press lightly and cut the rolls obliquely, so that they form little diamond shapes, then brush with a little milk. Repeat with the other portions of filling and pastry. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes. Then leave them to cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

* I put slices of bread in my food processor and pulse it til I have large loose breadcrumbs - bigger than the commercial dried ones



- - - - -

In other unrelated goings-on:

• We are in full 2 year old birthday planning mode. Big girl is making him a barn for his animal collection (ah, sisterly love :-), and I'm making things for his party this weekend, which I'll hopefully show you next week... if they work out, or maybe if not too ;-)

• My seven circle is coming along really well (for an amateur!) and I hope to finish very soon. Though this warm weather is not so encouraging - I'm almost wishing for a cold spell so that I can wear it!