Smart Wife’s Perfect Yorkshire pudding recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Vegetables and Sides | 90 comments
Successful individual yorkshire puddings made in a fairy cake tray
We now have an even better recipe for Yorkshire puddings – these are crisp and keep their shape.
Years ago Smart Wife taught me how to make perfect Yorkshire puddings. I often ruined the joint but our individual Yorkshire puds were perfect every time. Rising like a miniature Tower Of Pisa army, they happily deflected attention away from the teeth challenging meat.
On Sunday, Danny suddenly gets serious at around six o’clock and puts on his King Of Roasts mantle. If he is cooking beef I am invited to be his Queen Of Yorkshire Puds.
There are three key tips:
1. Make individual puds – I use an individual cake/bun/mince pie tray- they rise far higher and tend to keep their shape better than one big baking tray.
2. Make sure that the oil in the pans is smoking before you add the batter.
3. Only use plain white flour.
This Sunday I used a bread making flour – white with the goodness of added grains. Big mistake!
Rather than the usual five inch high puds we got the three inch hovels that you can see in the photo. They flattened as I waved a camera at them. They tasted fine but didn’t have so much hanger appeal.
N.B. December 2 2007: I have experimented with this recipe and had great results using a heavier dish.
Smart Wife’s Perfect Yorkshire pudding recipe feeds 4 or 2 greedy people like D and me – they’re great cold with a slice of ham for breakfast)
| Smart Wife’s Perfect Yorkshire pudding recipe |
- 110g of plain white flour
- 2 medium eggs
- 300ml of chilled milk (we use semi skimmed and I think that Smart Wife probably used full cream)
- 2-3 tablespoonfuls of olive oil/ beef dripping/rape seed oil
- Large pinch of salt
- Sift the plain flour into a bowl. Add the salt.
- Make a well in the centre and break in the two eggs. Gently whisk the eggs into the flour and gradually add the milk. I now use my stick blender to do this and it gives a much better result. Ideally, return the mixture to the fridge in a jug for half an hour to chill. If you don’t have time for that the puds will be fine, just won’t rise quite as much.
- Put a little oil (about 0.5 tsp) in eight wells in the cake tin and put on the top shelf of a preheated oven 220c (200c fan) for ten minutes.
- Quickly whisk your batter and pour onto the hot, smoking oil in the wells in the cake tin. The oil should bubble up around the batter. Speed counts.
- Bake at the top of the oven for 20 minutes, turning the tray around after ten minutes.
- Time the puds to be ready when the joint is just about to be carved so you will serve them at their crispest and best.
Leave a reply
Thanks for the recipe I will be given them a try on Sunday and will let you know how it goes! They sound delicious
Hi Suzanne
Put them in a preheated oven 180c (160c fan) for approx 5 minutes.
can you tell me how to reheat yorkshire puddings
Hi Lucy
Use 2 medium eggs or 2 large ones.
hiya we have been trying to find out how to make york puds and every web site we go on tells us to use between 4and 1 eggs can u tell us how many we have to use plz
Hi Irene,
I don’t know what went wrong with your puds. I don’t use an electric whisk.
The key to these puds is heat. Hot oven, hot oil and cold batter. The batter should fizzle in the tins when you pour it in. Leave them, without opening the door to, for 20 minutes.
The meat should be out of the oven and resting by the time you pop them in.
Hi
I was greatly encouraged and tried the Yorkshire puds, though I had hitherto felt intimidated as I was told they’re notoriously temperamental.
However, the puds fell flat. Can you tell me what may have gone wrong? [I used the electric mixer on setting 1(low)].
Cheers
Irene
Hi Hensteeth,
It’s great that you are enjoying the blog.
How interesting that the recipe mirrors the corn cake recipe. These Yorkshire Puddings are crisp on the outside and soft and airy on the inside. We moved our smoke alarm out of the kitchen as it was endlessly going off when we made the puds.
I just discovered your blog, and I am so enjoying it. Thank you.
I am fascinated by your recipe. It mirrors the recipe and methods for making old-fashioned US Southern-style corn bread cakes in an iron mold. The batter needs to be cold, and poured quickly into the oiled and smoking hot iron mold. The result is nicely rounded cornmeal cakes with a lovely crumb inside and a toasty outside.
I’ve seen these iron molds of half-size ears of corn hung on a wall for decoration, but I’ve never known anyone to cook with them for over 10 years. These kinds of baking techniques might have been put out of business by the smoke alarm…
Hi Martyn,
I am so pleased that this recipe worked for you! Sometimes we reheat the left over puds the next day and they plump up a bit – great as a lunch snack with a slice of ham or roast beef inside.