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.
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i have always made my own yorkshire puddings and they rose well, but i tried your recipe for a change, and my god was i impressed, i took photo and sent it to my gran who made the best in the world ,but i think i just over took her,
thank you ,great recipe.
Hi Linda
Thanks so much for the extra tips!
Hello Matt
Great idea not washing out the YP pan – that really appeals to me. I like them cold with a little pickle and rare beef.
Hi Lesley
Thanks 🙂
I know how to make these lovely puddings but the humour was well worth the read!
Thanks!
I’ve been making yorkshire puddings for years and always been succesful, but when a friend asked for the recipe i realised i actually dont follow one, its guess work every time and somehow never fails. i think its basically a routine of rules. the fat must be hotter than the sun (I sometimes put on a hot hob whilst pouring the mix in). never open the oven whilst their in, and most importantly, NEVER wash your yorkshire pudding tray, the build up stops them from sticking and as your oven is so hot it kills any bacteria and germs when your preheating.
Also, being from yorkshire we enjoy ours in anyway possible, starter, maincourse or dessert, a personal favourite is yorkshire puddings with treacle, after all, it is a yorkshire pudding.
Hi, great recipe, I make mine really light by halving the milk and replacing it with cold water, and also a little pinch of SR flour just before they are to be poured into the pan works a treat
Hi Dids
Try using a heavier pan. I discovered that they keep their shape better.
Hello Karin
That’s really good to hear. Thanks for dropping by.
Thank you for this recepie.
My boyfriend is from england and moved to the Netherlands to live with me. I like to make him roast dinner on sunday to give him a little of england here in the Netherlands. I never managed to get the puddings right though, that is until I found your recepie. Now they are perfect 😀
Hi,having made hellish yorky puds for ages ,my stumbling block is when i take them out of the oven they immediatley fall flat as a pancake.they are the right colour,size allbeit flat.can you help?
HI IV BEEN TRYING TO MAKE YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS FOR YEARS. ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO I LIVED ON A FARM AND HAD AN OLD AGAR AND MY YORKSHIRE PUDDING WERE LOVELY AND ALWAYS ROSE, BUT THE AGAR WAS TAKEN OUT A FEW YEARS AFTER WE MOVED IN AND IV NEVER BEEN ABLE TO MAKE THEM SINCE.I RUN A GOLF CLUB AND HAVE TO BUY YORKIES IN (BOO) AND I WOULD LOVE TO BE ABLE TO MAKE THEM AGAIN, SO IM GOING TO TRY YOUR RECIPE I WILL WRITE TO LET YOU NO HOW I GET ON. WISH ME LUCK…
Wow Thank You so so much for this fabulous recipe, i have never made yorkshire puds my hubby usually does them if he is out i generally resort to frozen ones as i used to dread the thought of trying to make my own. Never again these were fantastic, my families eyes stood on stalks as i fetched them out of the oven LOL they were huge! so light, fluffy but crunchy on the outside and so easy to make i can’t believe i put off making yorkshire puddings for the last 16 years! So huge huge THANK YOU for this great recipe i will use this always, never agin will we eat frozen ones from the supermarket! Great site too i will be checking back for tips on chickens as we are just in the process of buying a new house with land in Devon and top of my list of jobs to get done is have my own chickens, veg patch, orchard etc so i will be a regular visitor to your site as it is great. Thank you best wishes Steffi