5 Ingredients or Fewer

Perfect Yorkshire Puddings

by:
July 31, 2021
5
2 Ratings
Perfect Yorkshire Puddings
Photo by Elaine Lemm
  • Prep time 10 minutes
  • Cook time 25 minutes
  • makes 12 muffin-sized puds
Author Notes

Call them Yorkshire puddings or call them popovers (there's little difference); these beauties always take centre stage on a Sunday roast.

I am a born and bred Yorkshire woman, so I make these most Sundays and have been doing so since my Mum taught me when I was just 9-years old.

There is fierce rivalry amongst Yorkshire Pudding makers as to the best recipe - everyone has their own method - and size really does matter, the bigger the better it seems.

Ten years ago, I wrote the world's first book dedicated to the puds - The Great Book of Yorkshire Pudding - now in is its fourth edition. This is my tried and tested recipe and so, so easy to make. 400,000 views on YouTube bear a testament to the recipe's success. Here in the UK, I am known as the Yorkshire Pudding Queen.

Traditionally, the puds are served before the roast with hot gravy because looking back to when meat was costly (yes, even more than it is now), eating this carb-packed dish first would fill up empty tummies on the second course needed less meat.

Here, it is a cultural, geographical choice, and you are more likely to see them served this way in Yorkshire.

Don't keep them just for Sundays, though. They make a great midweek meal filled with sausages, a good Irish stew, or hot, spicy chilli. Children love them.

Should you have leftovers (never in my house), they are so good cold smeared with a little jam, honey or Golden Syrup. Serve them as a dessert with a little ice cream - delicious.

I hope you enjoy them.
—Elaine Lemm

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 4 large, fresh free-range eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup plain (all- purpose) flour
  • Pinch salt
  • 6 teaspoons vegetable oil, lard, dripping or duck fat
Directions
  1. In a large baking bowl, add the eggs, the milk and beat lightly to mix.
  2. Sieve the flour into the egg/milk mix followed by the salt and beat well until mixed. Do not worry too much at this stage if the batter seems lumpy. Put the batter to rest for a minimum of 30 minutes up to several hours on the worktop. Give the batter a quick beat from time to time but don't angst over it.
  3. When you are ready to cook your puds, heat the oven to 220C/425F. Put a 12 hole muffin tin on the middle shelf to heat up.
  4. Once at temperature, ½ teaspoon of oil or fat into each cup of the muffin, pop the tin back into the oven and heat it to very hot; the fat is ready when it is slightly smoking (not burning).
  5. Give the Yorkshire puddings another quick whisk, then pour through a sieve into a jug. Then quickly fill each cup halfway and get the tin back into the oven as quickly as possible. Cook for 20 - 25 minutes until they are risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve with lashings of hot gravy either as a starter or alongside your Sunday roast.
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3 Reviews

alice
alice December 29, 2024
I was intimidated to try these- but based on my first try- this is a winner!
 
judy
judy August 3, 2021
So many memories reading about Yorkshire puddings! Grew up on them with our Sunday "roast beast". This was Dad's main cook of the week and his go to company specialty. He learned from his mother -in-law. And you are so right about the recipe--each had their own. Her recipe was 1-1 &2. I cup milk I cup flour and 2 beaten eggs. Plus a dash of salt. Dad would save the fat from Saturday morning breakfast bacon (full English, of course!) and use that for the fat in the muffin tins. I never had any others to come them with, because we grew up in Southern California, and we didn't know any one else who made them. But folks were always excited to be invited to Sunday dinner at John and Dorothy's as they knew they were in for a treat. Dad also made these most amazing roasted potatoes to go along with the lashing of gravy he provided. I have never been able to duplicate his Sunday dinner magic, nor his Yorkshires. Alas, Dad and Mum are gone now. Thanks so much for the memories.
 
Elaine L.
Elaine L. August 12, 2021
That is so lovely to hear about. I lived in France a few years and my friends loved me making them, they thought it very quaint.