Toad-in-the-Hole Pasties

Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a baking pan with foil. 

Put the sausages onto the lined pan and roast for 35 minutes, turning occasionally. 

Meanwhile, make the red onion gravy. Melt the butter in a large skillet, add the onions with a large pinch of salt, and fry over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar and fry for another 5 minutes. Next, add the sage, mustard, fennel seeds, and flour and fry for another couple of minutes, then stir in the wine and stock. Bring to a simmer and reduce by one-quarter, then season with salt and pepper. Let cool. 

White your gravy is cooking, make the mashed potatoes.  

For the mashed potatoes, cook the potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water for 15 minutes, or until soft. Drain in a colander and return to the pan. Add a knob of butter (I don't want any questions about how big a "knob" is; it is as big as you want it to be) and mash until smooth. Season well with salt and pepper and a grating of nutmeg, if you like. Let cool and then transfer to a large pastry bag. 

Once the sausages are done, remove from the oven and let cool. Reduce the oven to 400°F. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Unroll the pastry on your work surface and cut around a small plate to cut out 3 or 4 circles from each sheet. Put the pastry circles into the fridge to keep chilled. 

Take one pastry circle out of the fridge and place it on the lined cookie sheet. Place some of the onion gravy in the center of the circle, top with a sausage, and pipe some mashed potatoes across the top. The quantities here are up to you. The fuller the pasties are, the harder they will be to seal, but too little mixture and you'll be serving plain pastry. 

Once filled, brush one-half of the pastry circle rim with egg wash and fold the pastry in half, sealing as you go. Here you can crimp however you like, as long as it is tightly sealing the filling inside. I like to have 3 or 4 pasties in the oven at once, depending on their size, so once crimped, I put each pastry in the fridge until I have enough to put a batch in the oven. 

Brush the pasties all over with egg wash. Bake for 35 minutes or until puffed up and golden brown. 

Eat immediately.