A KEEN cook has combined two of Britain’s most classic dishes - to create the Yorkshire pudding pie.

Edward Harrison, 40, from Rillington, came up with the idea while cooking Sunday dinner during large family gatherings.

He created the Yorkshire Pudding Pie Company and estimates that during their first year in business, he and wife Lynne have made and sold nearly £8,000 worth of Yorkshire pudding pies.

His stall will be based at Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in York until September.

Edward revealed how he was cooking for friends and family on New Year’s Day 2017 when the idea came to him.

He said: “A few days later I tried it at home using left-overs and an hour later I walked into the lounge with a Yorkshire pudding pie.

“I’d decided to stop drinking for the whole of 2017 and I was looking for things to keep my mind occupied - I had to replace alcohol with something.

“And I’d been trying to think of something where you could use Yorkshire pudding as a takeaway food.”

Edward then set about having his invention intellectual property-protected which it now is - as a filling fully-encased in Yorkshire pudding.

So far Edward - who guards his production methods closely - says his four big sellers are chicken and stuffing, sausage with red onion marmalade, savoury mince made with Dexter beef and the “Wagyu” cheeseburger with mozzarella. They come with a side order of chips or roast potatoes and a pot of dunking gravy.

Although Edward says he has not had the dish calorie-tested yet he believes the new invention is a lighter, less stodgy alternative to the traditional pastry pie.

He said: “They certainly don’t set-off heart-burn the way pastry does and it just gives people a different taste and texture.”

Edward says he perfected his Yorkshire puddings at home with his mum.

He added: “With Yorkshire pudding the smoke coming out of the oven has to be blue when you open the door.

“It has to be almost unbearably hot when you open the oven and that way you get a good light batter - that and good eggs.”

He hopes to expand to a permanent premises and wholesale.“I enjoy it - there’s no way I would have worked 18 hours a day as a builder but if the work’s there and people want feeding I don’t think twice about it.”