Bedfordshire Clangers with Beef and Apple

Finely chop all the onion. Heat all the oil in a frying pan about 28 cm across and cook the onion over medium heat for about 5–6 minutes. Add all the raw beef and cook for about 7–8 minutes, breaking up lumps. Sprinkle in 10 g flour, stir for a minute and pour in all the stock. Add 5 g salt, all the thyme and pepper. Cook without covering for about 6–8 minutes, stirring, until the meat is completely cooked and the thick filling holds on a spoon, without free liquid. Keep all the fat and juices in the filling; do not drain anything. Spread thinly on a large shallow plate and leave to cool completely for at least 30 minutes; cool longer if still warm.

Meanwhile, cut all the trimmed apples into cubes about 1 cm across. Melt 10 g butter in a saucepan and add the apples, all the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon. Cook over medium-low heat for about 8–10 minutes, stirring often, until the cubes soften slightly but keep their shape and the reduced juice coats the fruit. Do not add water. If liquid remains in the bottom, reduce it a little longer. Transfer all the apples with the juice and butter to another shallow plate. Cool for at least 30 minutes until completely cool; do not put warm fillings on the pastry.

While the fillings cool, mix 400 g flour with all the baking powder and 5 g salt. Rub in 50 g cold butter to make fine crumbs, then stir in all the finely grated raw suet. Add 180 ml cold water and briefly bring together into a soft but not sticky dough; if dry crumbs remain, add small amounts from the extra 20 ml water. Do not knead for long. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes; this rest overlaps the cooling of the fillings. Keep 20 ml water separately for the edges.

Start preheating the oven to 200°C, conventional heat. Line a baking sheet with a flat usable area about 40 × 35 cm with parchment. Weigh out 90 g pastry for the dividers and divide the rest into 6 equal pieces. Using a little of the reserved 20 g dusting flour, roll each piece into a square about 18 × 18 cm and about 3 mm thick, without cutting off and discarding edges. Lay the sheet squarely in front of you. Shape the reserved 90 g into 6 walls about 9 cm long and about 2 cm high. On the lower half of each square, position a wall 12 cm from the left edge: it should run from the bottom edge to the halfway fold line. Attach its base with a little egg and press gently. The larger meat section is on the left, the smaller apple section on the right.

Divide all the cold meat filling into 6 portions and place to the left of the walls, only on the lower half of the pastry. Divide all the cooled apples on the right in the same way. Leave about 1 cm of clean exterior margin and keep the fillings low, below the tops of the walls. Moisten the outside edges with water from the reserved 20 ml and brush the wall tops thinly with egg. Fold the upper pastry half over the fillings. Press the outside seam with your fingers, then a fork. Gently press the pastry top above each wall so it sticks to it: the divider must join the base to the cover, outer seam and back fold. Do not mix the two fillings. Transfer all the elongated pastries, about 18 × 9 cm, to the sheet in 2 columns and 3 rows, leaving gaps of about 2 cm.

Brush the tops thinly with beaten egg, using only as much as needed; discard the remaining egg. Make 2 short slits over the meat end of each pastry and 3 over the apple end, cutting only through the top pastry so steam can escape. Do not cut the divider. Set unused dusting flour aside and discard any water left for the dough or for moistening the edges.

Put the sheet on the middle rack of the fully preheated oven. Bake for about 40–45 minutes until the tops are evenly golden, the bases are baked through and dry, and the pastry at the seams is not raw or sticky. If the tops brown too quickly, cover loosely with foil; if the base stays soft and pale, bake a few minutes longer. Leave for 15 minutes after removing from the oven so the filling settles slightly. Serve one clanger per portion, pointing out the marks: 2 slits by the meat, 3 by the apples. Each pastry contains both separate fillings.