A pasty is a traditional pastry. It consists of a pastry case that’s filled with desired ingredients and then baked until golden brown. Once baked, the pasty can be served warm, but it can also be enjoyed later when it cools down. Although the most popular and widely known type of pasty is Cornwall’s Cornish pasty, there are many more types of pasty depending on the filling, such as curried potato pasty, scotch egg pasty, cheese and Marmite pasty, and even shepherd’s pie pasties that make the classic dish portable.
However, the traditional Cornish pasty is filled with a mixture of beef, onions, potatoes, and swede. In the end, pasty is just a name for the shape, and the pastry can contain a myriad of different ingredients on the inside.
VARIATIONS OF Pasty
MOST ICONIC Pasty
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MAIN INGREDIENTS
Bakewell pudding is a traditional dessert consisting of a pastry base that is filled with fruit jam and a paste made from ground almonds, butter, and eggs. The first Bakewell pudding was created by accident at a local inn around 1860. It is recommended to serve the dish hot and pair it with cream or custard for extra flavor.
MOST ICONIC Bakewell pudding
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Cornish pasty is a popular dish that is a specialty of Cornwall. Shaped into a form of the letter D or a half-moon, this crispy and juicy pastry is filled with beef and various root vegetables and seasonings. The golden color of the pastry is achieved by using egg wash or milk glazing, while the interior is filled with potatoes, turnips, onions, diced beef, herbs, and seasonings.
The final product has a balanced, savory taste, due to the fact that only high-quality beef and vegetables from the Cornwall area are used in it. It is believed that Cornish pasty was invented as a practical, portable meal for tin miners who couldn't leave the mines for lunch, and its thick crust kept the fillings warm for a long time.
MOST ICONIC Cornish pasty
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Eccles cake is a specialty of the eponymous city in the Greater Manchester region. The dish consists of a crispy puff pastry filled with cinnamon, raisins or currants, and brown sugar, the whole concoction glazed with honey to develop its characteristical golden color.
These tasty treats were even outlawed in 1653 due to the Puritan belief that they were pagan. Today, Eccles cakes are fully legal, and it is recommended to pair them with a cup of tea or a bowl of hot porridge.
MOST ICONIC Eccles cake
View moreBorrachuelo is a traditional dessert originating from Málaga. The word borracho in the name means drunk, referring to the fact that the biscuits are soaked in wine and anisette. Although the cookies have a few versions, depending on their filling, they’re usually made with a combination of flour, olive oil, orange peel strips, moscatel wine, anisette, orange juice, lemon juice, sesame seeds, and fennel.
Once prepared, the smooth dough is rolled out and cut into disks, fried until golden, filled with pumpkin or sweet potato mixture, closed, dipped in honey, and dusted with icing sugar. Borrachuelos are especially popular during the carnival season and Christmas.
Named after the county town of Angus, where they originated in the 18th century as Scotland's answer to the already famed Cornish pasty, bridies are shortcrust pastry turnovers traditionally filled with chunks or strips of beef that was browned in suet with chopped onions.
As the local stories claim, the delicious Forfar bridies took the other part of their name from a certain Margaret Bridie of Glamis who sold them at Forfarshire's weekly market. In 1896, they were mentioned in James Matthew Barrie's novel Sentimental Tommy, which made them popular across Scotland, and over time it has become a tradition to eat bridies for lunch on Saturdays.
MOST ICONIC Forfar Bridie
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Banbury cake is a traditional thin pastry filled with fruit and spices, originating from the town of Banbury. The pastry is made with a combination of puff pastry, butter, currants, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, ginger, rose water, beaten egg whites, and a splash of dark rum.
Banbury cakes date back to at least the 17th century, when the Knights Templar returned from their crusades and brought over new foods rich in fruit and spices. Nowadays, currants or raisins are a staple of the Banbury cakes' filling, along with grated peel and various spices.
MOST ICONIC Banbury cake
Bedfordshire's answer to the popular Cornish pasty is called Bedfordshire clanger, an old dish dating back to the 19th century. This delicacy originally started as a boiled suet pudding with a savory meat filling on one end and a sweet fruit filling on the other end.
It was a favorite food and a staple of field workers in the 19th century. The word clanger in the name of the dish is believed to refer to the erroneous action of combining sweet and savory fillings in one dish. However, others believe that clanger is derived from the word clang, which means to eat voraciously in Northamptonshire dialect.
MOST ICONIC Bedfordshire clanger
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Isle of Wight doughnuts are traditional doughnuts originating from the Isle of Wight. The doughnuts are either filled with currants and tied in a knot or filled with apples and shaped in a turnover (half circle). The dough for these doughnuts is often flavored with cinnamon, cloves, mace, allspice, or nutmeg.
It's usually made with flour, butter, sugar, yeast, milk, and eggs. Candied peel and lemon zest can also be added to the dough for extra flavor. In the past, the doughnuts were cooked in lard, and nowadays vegetable oil is more common. Once golden brown, they are drained and dusted with icing sugar.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
London cheesecake, despite its name, is not a cheesecake, nor is it from London. This British sweet pastry is made with puff pastry that’s filled with almond cream and a dollop of jam. Once baked, the puff pastry is brushed with icing consisting of icing sugar and water.
The tops of the cheesecakes are then dipped into desiccated coconut, which makes the pastry seem like it’s topped with grated cheese, hence the possible name of the dessert. Some say that the original pastry contained cheese curds. London cheesecakes were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s, but the origins of the pastry are still a mystery.
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