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Do any bakeries still make the Bedfordshire clanger?

Clare Hargreaves: The clanger — Bedfordshire’s answer to the Cornish pasty — dates back to at least the 19th century, when it was fuel for people labouring in the fields. Unlike the pasty, which uses shortcrust pastry, it’s made with suet pastry and traditionally boiled instead of baked. What makes it distinct is that it has two fillings in one casing — savoury at one end, sweet at the other.

Traditional recipes would include potatoes and bacon or gammon, with jam as the dessert portion. Liver and onion or pork and onion were also popular. It’s a stodgy affair; no wonder the name comes from the local word ‘clung’, meaning heavy.

Today, the only place in the UK where you can buy one is Gunns Bakery in Bedfordshire, although it does occasionally pop up on cafe menus across the county. Gunns, which has three branches, is run by David Gunns, whose grandfather opened the bakery almost a century ago. David’s clangers are baked rather than boiled, and he pairs gammon with apple rather than jam. Recently, he’s offered less conventional flavours such as beef and ale paired with rhubarb and custard, and vegetable curry alongside a mango dessert.

In 2017, clanger sales doubled at Gunns when the dish featured on

Great British Bake Off ’s ‘Forgotten Bakes’ week. It has even reached the US, thanks to British expat

Sam Jacobson’s pie ’n’ mash shop in Philadelphia, Stargazy, where the menu includes a beef curry and pineapple version.

To make one, try the recipes in

Paul Hollywood’s Pies & Puds (£14, Bloomsbury) and National Trust Book

by Regula Ysewijn (£9.99, Pavillion Books).

The clanger contains two courses in one pastry