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Bedfordshire Clanger

The clanger is an elongated suet crust dumpling, they can be sweet but this one is savoury with goat’s cheese, butternut squash and onion chutney!

Serves

4

Prep time

40 minutes

Cook time

40 minutes

This recipe is from our 2025 ‘Secret dishes from around the UK’ calendar!

Ingredients

400g self-raising flour, plus
extra for dusting
1 tsp fine sea salt
130g vegetable or beef suet
75g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
275ml ice-cold water
2 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 butternut squash, diced into small pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
7g unsalted butter
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
225g goats cheese, cut into 1cm slices

Method

1. Heat the butter and stir in the red onions. Add the vinegar and sugar and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes stirring occasionally, season with salt and pepper and cool.
2. Toss the butternut squash in olive oil and cook in the oven for 15 minutes at 180c.
3. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, add the suet and mix well. Add the cold butter, then gently rub with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well, then stir in enough ice-cold water to make a soft but not sticky dough knead gently until smooth.
4. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll it out to the thickness of a pound coin, use a knife and a ruler to trim four 16 x 28cm rectangles. Brush a 1cm strip all around the edges of the rectangle with the beaten egg yolk.
5. Layer the fillings slightly to the left. Arrange one quarter of each ingredient in each clanger, leaving the borders clear. Fold the ends
over and crimp with a fork.
6. Transfer to a lined baking sheet and brush with egg yolk, prick  the top with a fork and bake at 200c for 35 minutes until the pastry
is golden.

Chef’s tips

Make an apple pie filling and add it to one half of the dumpling for a traditional clanger experience.

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