There’s nothing worse than going to the effort of making a really tasty roast dinner only to find that you cant get your Yorkshire puddings to rise. As a chef I’ve experimented over the years with different recipe’s and can give some very helpful advice to help you understand the mechanics behind what makes a good Yorkshire pudding. I’m going to concentrate on the method rather than the recipe, because there are many good recipe’s out there, the problem is getting all the other factors right.
First of all in order for the Yorkshire to rise in the oven the mixture needs to have lots of air inside it. The best way to do this is to whisk the eggs by hand without any other ingredients, whisk for a good 2 minutes to makes sure there is lots of air in the eggs. To do this, hold the bowl under your left arm and hold the whisk with your right hand, with the whisk almost horizontal and try to whisk an up and down stroke so that you really bring air down into the eggs.
Then add your milk and whisk again, then slowly add the flour whisking as you go, until all the flour is mixed in. You can then add the rest of the ingredients specified in your recipe. Once everything is mixed in you should then get a ladle and notice the consistency of the batter by scooping up some of the mix and pouring it back in to the bowl. As a rule of thumb it should be the thickness of Heinz tomato soup, certainly not any thinner. Now put your mixture into the fridge for 5-15 Min’s to allow the mixture to rest and cool down. Meanwhile heat your oven to its highest setting and oil your Yorkshire pudding tray.
Don’t put too much oil in, just aim for roughly a teaspoon of oil in each hole. Move the oil around in the tray by tilting it to make sure the oil gets all around the tops of the holes otherwise your Yorkshires will stick. Now put your Yorkshire tin in the preheated oven for 5 minutes, don’t leave the oven at this time as your oven is on a very high heat. Then turn down the oven to the temperature stated on your recipe get some oven gloves and take out your hot Yorkshire tray. Now spoon the mixture straight into your tray,. The tray should not be out of the oven for more than 1 minute, the idea is to get the Yorkshire mixture into the tray while it is still hot. This way when the cold mixture hits the hot surface it should sizzle and bubble creating more air pockets in the Yorkshire which will make it rise. Now make sure you don’t check on your Yorkshires until near the end cooking time on your recipe method, if you have to peak don’t open the oven fully.
I hope these tips are help-full and I wish you good luck in your cooking!
