We’ve recreated Ian’s mac and cheese pizza, Mickie's Dairy Bar French toast, and classic curds ‘n’ ranch. Today, we’re taking a crack at one of Madison's go-to to-go foods: Teddywedgers.

A brief history

Miles Allen founded Teddywedgers in 1976 and left the pasty restaurant to his friend and employee Raymond Johnson when he passed away. Johnson then sold the restaurant to siblings Karima Berkani and Anthony Rineer in 2014, who have kept Allen's vision alive ever since.

Stop by the Teddywedgers tent at the Madison Night Market. | Photo by 608today

Teddywedgers keeps it simple with a menu consisting solely of pasties. What's a pasty, you ask? The handheld snack traditionally consists of meat and veggies wrapped in pastry dough. The final product is a warm, hearty "wedge", great for a quick lunch.

We're attempting its Big Cheesy: "Pasty filled with Wisconsin ground beef, homemade marinara sauce, and enough mozzarella cheese to earn its name."

Ingredients

Crust:

2 sticks of unsalted butter cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tb sugar
1/3 cup buttermilk

Pro tip: A store-bought pie crust will suffice, just skip all crust instructions until step No. 5 under "Filling."

Filling:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1 cup marinara sauce — jarred works fine, but City Editor Ally uses this recipe
1/2 cup freshly shredded mozzarella

DIY Teddywedgers ingredients. | Photo by 608today

Instructions

Crust:

Mix the dry ingredients for the crust.
Add dry ingredients and cubed butter into a food processor and pulse 5-10 times.
Slowly incorporate the buttermilk until the dough is crumbly, but will hold its shape if pressed into a ball.
Roll and press into disks that are about one inch thick.

Filling:

Preheat oven to 380°.
Brown beef over high heat.
Add onion and marinara, and bring heat to medium low.
Once fully combined and not runny, remove from heat.
Roll dough into thin, 6-inch circular sheets.
Layer cheese and meat onto half of the dough sheet until you've used about 1/2 cup of your meat filling.
Fold dough over the filling, and pinch edges to seal.
Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown.