Haggis sausage rolls.

Home-made sausage rolls might just equal pavlova in their nonchalant ability to feed a delighted crowd - especially (perhaps exclusively) if you use pre-rolled puff pastry. They are similarly adaptable in form and flavour: mini morsels spiked with black pudding or cheddar at a picnic; giants dressed up in confited onions or truffles at a party.

Invited to the second day of the England v Ireland test by a friend of Scottish heritage, I picked up a haggis along with the sausagemeat. I had been intending to buy plain sausages but there were some interesting apple versions on offer so I got those instead. I've never used anything sweet in a sausage roll before but once I had crossed the fruity Rubicon (Fruiticon - #sorrynotsorry) I decided to go for it with dried apricots and caramelised onions.

Sausage mix

One of the advantages of using haggis and sausage meat is you are guaranteed to have sufficient seasoning. I used one of those Macsween haggises, three of the sausages (skinned), a large handful each of diced apricots and finely chopped parsley, and an egg. Mixed by hand, because speed trumps squeamishness.

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Onions

Onions cut into slivers and cooked down into a sticky tangle, then splashed

with balsamic vinegar.

Pastry

Jus-don't-even-have-to-rol x 2

At some point I should really learn to make puff pastry properly. Today is not that day. Tomorrow probably isn't either.

Making and baking

I cut each sheet of pastry in half lengthways to make four skinny rectangles.

For each, I formed a quarter of the mixture into a sausage (badum) and laid it down the long edge of the pastry. I spread a quarter of the onions alongside, then rolled (tish) the pastry over on itself. I brushed the newly formed sausage roll with egg and a liberal scattering of sesame seeds and cut it into eighths.

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I am still grappling with the idiosyncrasies of my oven. The first round I baked at 180 for about 20 minutes, before deciding the sausage rolls were darkening too quickly and covering them with tin foil for another ten minutes.

The second round I baked at 200 without a fan, and the pastry rose well without colouring. I switched on the fan for the final five minutes and they came out the same colour as the first batch, but with much less hassle.

Conclusion

The haggis worked very well, and the apricot and balsamic vinegar were good foils for the lamb. I had only halved the onions and some of the longer pieces were a little too long for the mini rolls: next time I'll quarter them. Sausage rolls are pretty much the definitive picnic food, but are not particularly suited to extreme heat. Nonetheless, as both the temperature and Jack Leach reached heights no one would have predicted, they slowly disappeared amid the strawberries and ice.