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
I’ll give it a go.
The last time I tried to make Yorkshire Puddings they turned out as flat disks with raised edges. My wife took one to work; a colleague varnished it with nail varnish and used it as a coaster for her mug of tea for about 6 months. Humiliating!
Hi Sasha
I’m delighted that this recipe worked for you!
Thanks so much for leaving a comment.
There’s another step up though. If you use thick, iron based containers your Yorkshire puddings will retain their shape and be even crisper. I take these to work with sliced rare beef fillings and a little mustard and even on the cloudiest day the sun always shines at lunch time!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I used to make the BEST Yorkshires ever but I lost my recipe. I was heart broken, but found a recipe I thought was the same on the BBC website. But I must have tried it 4 or 5 times (once on Christmas Day!) and they were all like hockey pucks – horrible! I did this recipe today and they were perfect! So I’ve torn the BBC recipe out of my folder and replaced it with this one!
Hello Swannie
So pleased that these worked out for you! Thanks for leaving a comment.
WOW! how fantastic were these yorkies, best Ive ever made and after cooking yorkshire puddings for over forty years mine were just OK compared to these. If you follow the directions to the letter you cannot fail.
Hi Magee
IMOA – I’d love to hear what that’s all about!
How do you cook the Yorkshire pud around the meat. I’m intrigued. Would you consider sharing your recipe and method?
I have been cooking yorkshire pudding around the meat for over 35 years. There is nothing like it IMOA. The individual ones in the tin are nice, but there is no comparison to the “real thing”.
Hello Moyra
Great news.
Thanks for the feedback!
wow dead simple, came out a treat, hubby was well impressed , thanks
Hi Kate
Do hope that they work well for you!