Good question!
The answer is that my MIL is from Stockton-On-Tees which for the longest time used to be part of Yorkshire. She got the recipe from her mom who got it from her mom so this dates back to the mid to late 1800's. I'd say that is pretty darned authentic.
No, this is not the original type where you have the pan of eggy-floury-milky stuff under a roast on a fire where the meat drippings infuse themselves into the pudding as it rises. That's what gravy is for nowadays!
Alrighty then, dave's Authentic Yorkshire Pudding recipe courtesy of his mother-in-law.
BTW, this dish is a side dish to a nice roast. You must use the pan drippings from the roast to making loads of gravy to go over the puddings and meat slices too. And this will make 12 muffin-sized Yorkshire Puddings.
What you need:
2/3 cup plain flour (NOT self-rising)
4 large eggs
milk
1/4 tsp salt
dash black pepper
butter
And a muffin tray to cook them in!
What you do:
First thing is to preheat your oven. MIL always says "a hot oven" to which I interpret to mean 210C/425F. You also preheat your muffin tray(s). The muffin tray(s) need be very hot when you pour the batter into them! Butter the muffin trays before you put them in the oven. And do not put them in the oven until the oven itself is preheated.
Whisk the eggs together in a large measuring cup. Add the salt, pepper, flour and mix till it's a paste. Then add enough milk to bring the volume to 1/2 pint (600 mls or slightly more than
Whisk it thoroughly until it is the consistency of cream. It should look like this:
After whisking the mix thoroughly, take the muffin trays out of the oven. The butter in each muffin cup should be sizzling and bubbling by now, if not then leave them in a bit longer.
Do not fill the muffin cups more than 1/3 full! These babies are going to foof up like you wouldn't believe!
And then immediately put the trays in the hot oven.
After a few minutes you'll notice (don't open the door, just turn on the oven light!) the puddings are rising very quickly around the sides but not the middle. That means you are doing it right!
Let the tops brown nicely whilst in the oven. The whole cooking process should take anywhere from 15 to 20. This should be the time when you make your gravy and mash the potatoes. When the tops are browned then it is time to take them out
and immediately serve them! A plateful of roast beef, mashed spuds, Yorkshire puddings with lashings of gravy over everything is some seriously great comfort food on a cold day!
Enjoy.
UPDATE: Important! Did you see where I said that 600 mls was slightly more than ONE cup? My bad. I doubled the recipe to make 12 muffins and went thru and changed everything but I missed the one cup to two cup. Gack! 600 mls is 2 and 1/4 cups!!!!!
