A Sunday dinner staple that you can now enjoy even if you’re vegan. Add all the ingredients except the oil to a food processor with a yorkshire pudding of salt and blitz until smooth. Transfer the batter to a jug, cover with cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hr.
Spoon a tsp of oil into eight holes of a muffin tin and place in the oven for 5 mins to get really hot. Remove the tin from the oven and carefully pour the batter into the hot oil. Return to the oven and bake for 25-30 mins until risen and deep golden brown. This website is published by Immediate Media Company Limited under licence from BBC Studios Distribution. Do you favour one big yorkshire or lots of little ones? Bologna to Bangkok, but the idea of taking on Yorkshire folk makes me a little nervous.
Especially as I’m about to take my life in my own hands and suggest they take too much credit for a dish which, strictly speaking, probably isn’t their invention. Delia and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, meanwhile, go for near equal amounts of water and milk. Although I’m inclined to go with the northerners on this one, it can’t be denied that the puddings made with water have a crisper batter: the all-milk versions are softer and richer. Just the kind of thing a softy southerner might enjoy, in fact. James Martin calls for the batter to be mixed and rested overnight in the fridge, while Hugh compromises on at least half an hour, pointing out that this “serves as an excellent way of ensuring you carry out vital exercise of resting the meat”.
Marco Pierre White reckons resting “makes the batter lighter”, and I’m inclined to agree: Hugh’s puddings certainly seem to have risen better, although James Martin’s versions are no more impressive, so I think eight hours is a mite excessive. In her wonderful English Food, Jane Grigson supplies the winning recipe from a “Great Yorkshire Pudding Contest” held in Leeds in 1970 which, according to a contemporary Guardian report, produced results that “swelled to the height of a coronation crown” and tasted “superb”. Grigson admits that “for years I puzzled over tai luk sauce, asking at Chinese groceries without success”. Then an enterprising niece found what seems to be the answer: her request for tai luk was greeted with much laughter: apparently it means “mainland”, as in “mainland China”. Mr Chan, she concludes, was simply having an “amiable joke at the expense of Yorkshire patriotism”. Having tried his recipe, I suspect the secret ingredient that made actually won him the contest was the extra egg he adds.
Grigson’s own family recipe uses 3 to 250g flour, as does Delia’s version, but Chan plumps for 4. Traditionally, in the days when meat was roasted on a spit, the pudding was cooked underneath, so it could absorb the delicious drippings. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, as a dyed-in-the-wool southerner, substitutes olive oil, while those posh Hairy Bikers suggest goose fat. Both produce good results, but I like the more savoury note beef dripping brings to the pudding party. Canadian cook Susan Sampson suggests piercing the puddings as they leave the oven to let the steam out and keep them crisp, but all this seems to do is let them get cold. If you do right by your yorkshires, and eat them immediately, such drastic steps are unnecessary. Sift the flour into a large bowl with a generous pinch of salt.
Combine the milk in a jug with 150ml cold water. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs. Pour in a little milk and water, and then whisk the lot together to make a smooth batter. Mix in the rest of the liquid, until you have a batter the consistency of single cream. Leave at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.
Put a large roasting tin, or a 12-hole muffin tin, greased liberally with dripping or oil, on a high shelf and leave for 10 minutes to heat up. 20 minutes until well risen and golden. Keep an eye on them towards the end of the cooking time, but do not be tempted to open the door until they’re beautifully bronzed, because they’ll sink. Do you favour one big yorkshire, or lots of little ones? Does it go best with beef, or does batter make any meal better? Felicity Cloake will be appearing at Guardian Open Weekend, held on 24 and 25 March. Festival passes are now on sale at guardian.