Yorkshire Pudding Recipe

Yorkshire Pudding Recipe

This is the recipe that I use, a traditional pouring batter recipe that can be used for sweet pancakes as well as savoury Yorkshire pudding. It's surprising just how versatile this simple recipe is and how many different meals you can make from it. I enjoy my Yorkshire puddings alongside roast beef with lashings of thick beef gravy but I am also partial to savoury pancakes made from the same basic recipe.

4 oz (100g) Plain Flour
1 medium sized egg
pinch of salt
½ pint (280ml) of milk (or mixture of milk and water)
2oz (50g) lard/fat or 2 tablespoons of oil – as an healthier alternative I use vegetable or sunflower oil, or you can use fat from the meat.

Mix the flour and salt in a basin and make a hollow in middle. Drop the egg into the hollow and stir in with a wooden spoon. Add the milk (milk and water) gradually, stirring all of the time until the flour is worked in.

Add rest of liquid and beat well. The end result should have a similar consistency to single cream.

Melt the fat in cooking tin until spitting hot. Can be one large tin square, rectangular, round or small tins or a bun tin. When the fat is hot enough pour in the batter just half filling small tins, patty tins or bun tins. Cook at 450F, 230C or gas mark 8. Large tins for about 30 minutes, small tins or bun tins 15 - 20 minutes.

When cooked they should turn out puffy, golden and crispy on the outside and sunken in the middle. Some people let the fat from the meat drip on to the Yorkshire puddings while cooking.

A popular addition to menus in recent years in restaurants, cafes and bars is a king size or giant Yorkshire pudding filled with onion gravy or different meat, vegetable and gravy concoctions. This dish is served as a separate course emulating the original filler course.

You can even buy delicious smaller Yorkshire puddings filled with steak in one large chain store, rather like traditional steak and kidney puddings but made with batter mix.

Another popular meal made with Yorkshire pudding batter is Toad in the Hole. This is a tasty low cost meal with sausages cooked in the batter. An alternative there is to use lamb chops.