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
mark your sh*t, these are absolutely the most splendid Yorkshires I have ever tasted!
I have to be honest, this is the worst method I’ve used making Yorkshires. Very dissapointing Sunday lunch with these. I’d advise anyone to check out the BBC Good Food way far nicer result.
Right. I’ll give this a try. My mum made brilliant Yorkshire pudding in one great, crispy slab. The only downside was finding the rest of your dinner under it. I’m giving this recipe a go. Thanks.
Absolutely incredible! I used this recipe for Toad in the Hole and it was the best I’d ever made – it’s taken me so long to find a good yorkie pud recipe! Thank you!
Absolutely marvelous…big, bold and crispy, just as they shoud be. Thank you!! :))
Hi Mick
That’s great. Thanks for the feedback.
Another perfect! These have been my best yet. Thankyou
Perfect! I read all the complimentary comments and thought I’ll try, but I know mine will be rubbish! Was a little worried as i was using a pyrex dish rather than a tin, but it turned out perfect! I made one big pud with leftover Xmas pigs in blankets as a sort of toad in the hole. As a Yorkshire girl it’s important to get yorkies right!
I always add a little dried mustard powder to my yorkshire batter and it adds a nice little something. My mum always used to make the batter first thing in the morning and then leave it in the fridge till lunchtime. she would always add a spoonful of vegetable oil to the mix before putting in the fridge (no idea why but her puddings were always fabulous!!).
I stumbled across your blog yesterday looking for a home-made sausage recipes and I can’t stop reading it! It really has brightened my snow bound day 🙂
I thought I’d give this recipe a try as I’m hosting Christmas dinner this year and I know yorkshires are expected, mine always turn out like hockey pucks. Low and behold they came out as expected; light, fluffy and about 3 inches high. Yippeeeeee.
I have just made the best yorkshire puds ever with this recipe. In the past they have been soggy, refused to rise and ruined my dinner in the process. Today, they rose like carefully sculpted towers and didn’t wilt or flounder when cool. Fabtastic.