Cheese and Onion Rolls

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide frying pan for the onions
• •Potato masher
• •Large baking tray
• •Pastry brush

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the onions slowly

   Melt the butter with the oil in a wide pan over a low, steady heat. Add the sliced onions and a good pinch of salt. Stir them through the fat, then turn the heat down as far as it will go. Cook for twenty to twenty-five minutes, stirring now and then, until they've gone from sharp and white to soft, golden, and sweet enough that you'd eat them straight from the pan. If they start to catch or colour too fast, add a splash of water and keep going. This is the part that makes the rolls worth eating, so don't rush it.

   The onions should smell like Sunday by the time they're done. Sweet, buttery, a little caramelised. If they still smell sharp, they need longer.
2. 2

   Boil and mash the potatoes

   While the onions are softening, put the potatoes in a pan of well-salted cold water. Bring to a simmer and cook until they break apart easily when pressed with a fork. Drain thoroughly, let the steam escape for a minute, then mash until smooth. You want a dry, fluffy mash here, not a loose one. No butter, no cream, no milk. The pastry and the cheese will bring all the richness you need.

3. 3

   Make the filling

   Tip the cooked onions into the mash. Add the grated cheddar, the mustard, the chives, a generous grind of black pepper, and a grating of nutmeg. Mix everything together until well combined. Taste it. The filling should be well seasoned and savoury, a little punchy, because the pastry will mute the flavours slightly once baked. Adjust the salt. Let the filling cool completely before you go near the pastry.

   If the filling is warm when it meets the pastry, the butter in the pastry softens and you lose your layers. Patience here is the difference between flaky and soggy.
4. 4

   Roll and fill the pastry

   Set the oven to 200C/180C fan. Line a baking tray with parchment. Unroll the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut it lengthways into two long strips. Spoon the filling in a generous line down the centre of each strip, shaping it into a rough sausage with your hands. It should feel like a lot. It is. Don't be timid. Brush one long edge of the pastry with beaten egg, then fold the other edge over the filling to meet it, pressing firmly to seal. Turn each roll seam-side down.

5. 5

   Cut and glaze

   Cut each long roll into six pieces, roughly the length of your hand. Place them on the lined tray, leaving a little space between each. Brush the tops generously with beaten egg and scatter over a few seeds if you have them. Score two or three small slashes across the top of each roll with a sharp knife. This lets the steam out and gives the pastry somewhere to puff and crisp.

6. 6

   Bake until golden

   Bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until the pastry has risen and turned a deep, burnished gold. Not pale. Not blonde. Properly golden, the colour of a good biscuit, with the edges slightly darker where the filling has met the heat. Let them cool on a wire rack for ten minutes before eating. They're good warm. They're good cold. They're good the next day, straight from the tin, standing at the kitchen counter at eleven in the morning. I won't judge.

Chef Tips

• •Use the strongest cheddar you can find. A mild cheddar vanishes inside pastry. You want something with enough character to push through the potato and the onion and still announce itself. A proper West Country mature, aged eighteen months or more, is ideal.
• •Don't skip the mustard. You won't taste it as mustard in the finished roll, but you'll notice its absence. It sharpens the cheese and lifts the filling from comfortable to compelling. A teaspoon is enough. English mustard, not the mild sort.
• •These are perfect picnic food. They travel well, they taste just as good at room temperature as they do warm, and they don't need cutlery or a plate. Wrap them in greaseproof paper and pack them in a tin. They'll keep you going through an afternoon.
• •If you want to get ahead, assemble the rolls, glaze them, and freeze them uncooked on the tray. Once solid, bag them up. Bake from frozen, adding five minutes to the time. Useful to have a few in the freezer for emergencies.

Advance Preparation

• •The filling can be made a day ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Cold filling is actually easier to work with, so this is a practical advantage as much as a time-saving one.
• •Assembled rolls can be frozen unbaked for up to two months. Bake from frozen at 200C/180C fan for about thirty minutes, until deeply golden.
• •Baked rolls keep in an airtight container for two days. Reheat in a hot oven for five minutes to revive the pastry, or eat them cold. Both are good.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 90g)