This is a recipe that is very close to my heart. First of all, this is not what the average American thinks of when someone says “pudding,” this is actually a savory recipe that resembles a popover. While the recipe is super simple, and the results can be very impressive, it does require some self-control.
I grew up eating Yorkshire pudding and roast beef. It was our holiday meal, and often our birthday meal (when my mom would make us whatever we wanted for dinner and dessert). A traditional Yorkshire pudding is made in one dish, but I’m including a couple variations below. Now the fun part. Yorkshire pudding has always inspired much angst and competition in my family. Grandma’s was always glorious and high, Mom’s often fell flat. Mom now uses a different recipe, but I’ve always been able to get good results from Grandma’s original recipe (ha!). The good news is that even if your Yorkshire crashes, it will still taste good. An authentic recipe would use beef drippings to grease the pan, but since my roast beef recipe makes its own gravy as it cooks, I don’t ever have pan drippings. Shortening works fine.
The two most important parts of this recipe are the resting period for the batter, and not opening the oven door. If you don’t have a window in your oven, cross your fingers and pray. You can open the oven once, close to the end of the cooking time, but you will probably lose volume as a result. Also, almost any vessel with straight sides will work, but don’t use Pyrex! Because the pan has to be preheated mostly empty, using a Pyrex pan could be very dangerous (they can explode if heated empty).
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 Tbs. shortening
shake of salt
To Prepare: Place 2 Tbs. shortening in an 8 x 8 inch pan, or a 9 inch cake pan, or distribute in over-sized muffin tin.
Beat eggs with milk, add flour and salt. Let sit for 20-30 min. while you finish preparing dinner.
Place pan in oven and melt shortening. Add batter to hot shortening. Cook for 45 minutes at 425-450 degrees (lower for a darker pan). Don’t open the door! The pudding is done when the sides have risen and are a deep golden brown. Serve immediately with roast beef and gravy.
*Variations: Add 1 tsp or so of fresh chopped thyme or sage to batter. I have also put a small bit of goat cheese or blue cheese in the bottom of the pan after pouring in the batter. This makes for a very different flavor, and it’s quite yummy.
