Bedfordshire clangers
Makes: 6
Prep time: 1 hrTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Bedfordshire clangers
The clanger is an elongated suet-crust pudding dating back to at least the 19th century, originally boiled in a cloth but revived by bakeries in the 1990s as an oven-baked pasty-style treat. With its dual sweet and savoury fillings, a clanger is definitely a hearty meal! Two slashes in the pastry mark the savoury end, and three for the sweet filling
Makes: 6
Prep time: 1 hrTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
1202Kcal
Fat
60gr
Saturates
30gr
Carbs
126gr
Sugars
19gr
Fibre
8gr
Protein
35gr
Salt
1.5gr
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Ingredients
For the savoury pork filling
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, chopped
- 1 x 500g pack 10% fat pork mince
- 200g peeled potato, cut into 1cm chunks
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 175ml cider
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
For the sweet apple filling
- 2 cooking apples (about 400g)
- 1 eating apple
- zest and juice of 1⁄2 a lemon
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 30g sultanas
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 40g light brown sugar
For the pastry
- 750g plain flour, plus extra to dust
- 125g butter, diced
- 150g suet
- beaten egg, to glaze
Step by step
Get ahead
Make the clangers to the end of step 4 and freeze. Defrost fully, in the fridge, before baking.
- For the savoury filling, heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and bacon together for 5 minutes on a medium heat until golden. Add the pork mince, breaking it up well, then mix in the potato, sage and cider and season well. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, by which time the potato should be tender, then remove the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool.
- For the sweet filling, peel and core the apples and cut them into roughly 15mm dice. Toss with the rest of the sweet filling ingredients in a bowl.
- For the pastry, add the flour and a generous pinch of salt to a large mixing bowl then rub in the butter. Stir in the suet followed by 550-600ml cold water, to bring together as a dough then divide into six balls. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6.
- For each clanger, first shape a ball of dough into a fat rectangular block before rolling out on a floured surface to about 18cm x 26cm, short end towards you. Neaten up the edges then use these trimmings to build a pastry ‘wall’ across the rectangle, two-thirds of the way down, and brush this and all the edges with beaten egg. Add one-sixth of the sweet filling to the smaller pastry area, heaping it to one side, and do the same with the savoury filling in the large pastry area. Lift the pastry over the filling (it’s quite stretchy) and seal the edges with a fork. Press down gently at the pastry wall, to seal the divider.
- Transfer to a lined baking tray and brush with beaten egg. Make 3 steam slashes in the sweet end of each clanger, and 2 in the savoury end. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Cool for at least 30 minutes before eating.
