Yorkshire Puddings

Are you still looking for a perfect side dish for the Thanksgiving dinner? Look no further. These Yorkshire Puddings might just be the one.

Yorkshire pudding is a dish that originated in Yorkshire, England, and has attained wide popularity. It is made from an egg batter similar to that used in making Popover. It's most often served with roast beef, chicken, or any meal in which there is gravy.

Food historians generally agree on the American origins of the popover recipe, albeit derived from Yorkshire pudding and similar batter puddings made in England since the 17th century.

Ogden Nash inverts the historical order of events:

"Let's call Yorkshire pudding
A fortunate blunder:
It's a sort of popover
That turned and popped under."

Click HERE for these Julia Child's Popovers Recipe.

Yorkshire Pudding is cooked by pouring a thin batter made from flour, eggs, milk and seasoning into a preheated greased baking tin containing very hot fat or oil and baking at very high heat until it has risen and browned. It is then served in slices or quarters, depending on the size of the tray in which it was cooked.

In recent years, it has become more popular to cook them in batches in bun tins (baked in muffin trays or baking tins like Popovers), making individual mini puddings.

Traditionally, Yorkshire pudding is cooked in a large tin underneath a roasting joint of meat in order to catch the dripping fat and then cut appropriately. Yorkshire pudding may also be made in the same pan as the meat, after the meat has been cooked and moved to a serving platter, which also takes advantage of the meat fat that is left behind.

In pub cuisine, Yorkshire puddings may be offered with a multitude of fillings, with the pudding acting as a bowl.

The pudding can also be eaten as a sweet dish, with jam, golden syrup, lemon juice or sugar.

Yorkshire Puddings Recipe
(Adapted from Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook)
Makes 12

Ingredients

125 g (4 oz) plain flour
2 eggs, beaten
250 ml milk
A pinch of salt
Shortening

Method

1. Sift flour and a pink of salt into a bowl. Make a well in the middle and add eggs and a little milk.
2. Whisk the milk and egg, then whisk in half of the milk, drawing in the flour to make a smooth batter. Stir in the other half of the milk. Cover and stand for at least 30 minutes.
3. Put some shortening (white vegetable fat) into each cup of a 12-hole bun or muffin tin and and heat in a preheated oven at 220C (425F) until very hot.

   

4. Remove the tin from the oven. Whisk the batter and pour into the cups in the tin.

   

5. Bake the Yorkshire puddings in the oven for 15 minutes or until well risen, golden, and crisp.

   

6. Serve immediately.