How to make Sausage and Apple Plait

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1. Place the flour in a bowl. Cut the butter into very small cubes and add to the flour with the salt. Use a round bladed knife cut the butter into the flour as finely as possible then using your fingertips rub the butter into flakes with the flour, it will be quite coarse and a little lumpy- but this is what will give you lovely flakes when cooked.
2. When the cubes of butter have become small pieces but has not become too fine, gradually add 125ml iced water and mix until it is all incorporated, but don't overwork the dough. Roll it into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the pastry into a 40 x 20cm rectangle. Fold it into three and give it a quarter-turn. Roll the block of pastry into a 40 x 20cm rectangle as before, and fold it into three again. These are the first 2 turns. Wrap the block in cling film and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
4. Give the chilled pastry another 2 turns, rolling and folding as before. This makes a total of 4 turns, and the pastry is now ready. Wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using. This will keep for 3 days in the fridge, and for at least 4 weeks in the freezer
5. Run the sausages under a cold tap, slit the skins then remove and discard them. Finely chop the sage and the apples, discarding the core and pipes. Mix the sausagemeat, apple and sage together and form into a fat sausage about 7cm x 180cm.
6. Roll out the pastry on a floured work surface to a rectangle about 260cm x 240cm. Place the sausagemeat down the centre then using a sharp knife, cut 2.5 cm strips at a slant towards you.
7. Starting furthest away from you, take one strip of pastry and fold it over the sausagemeat. Then, take a strip of pastry from the other side and lay it over, slightly overlapping the first piece. Continue all the way down the pie then tuck the ends of the pastry into the plait. Brush a little beaten egg over the pastry.
8. Pre heat the oven to 200c, 180c fan. Gas 6. Bake the plait for 20 minutes the reduce the oven temperature to 170c, 150c fan, gas 4 and cook for a further 20 mins, until golden brown and risen and the sausagemeat is cooked through. Serve hot or cold.

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