How to make delicious Yorkshire puddings

The secrets to getting that crucial crunch and avoiding drooping disasters

You can't call yourself a Sunday roast connoisseur if you can’t produce the perfect homemade Yorkshire pudding.

The staple of roast dinners up and down the country is made with incredibly basic ingredients but mastering that cup-like shape and crunch is not so easy.

The Yorkshire pudding was originally called Dripping pudding because it was a use for fat, or dripping, from roast meat.

It was renamed after Yorkshire because of the region’s association with the coal needed to achieve the crispiness using higher temperatures.

In the 18th century, they were served with gravy as the only course in poorer households or as a first course so that people would eat less of the expensive meat served afterwards.

According to the online recipe bible, BBC Good Food, the key to the modern Yorkshire is to have the fat sizzling hot and, whatever you do, not to open the oven door.

How to make eight large ‘best Yorkshire puds’:

1. Drizzle a little sunflower oil into muffin/cupcake tin
2. Place tin into oven preheated to 230C 
3. Beat four eggs into a bowl of 140g of plain flour until smooth
4. Gradually add 200ml milk and beat until the mix is lump-free
5. Season with salt and pepper
6. Pour batter into a jug, remove tin from oven and pour batter evenly into the holes
7. Give the tin 20-25 minutes in the oven until puffed up and brown
8. Do not open the oven door!

Different chefs have their own tips, from Gordon Ramsay recommending whole milk to Delia Smith reminding us that plain flour can’t be substituted by self-raising.

However, they agree that serving as soon as possible is the best way to maintain that crucial crunch.

Committing the cardinal sin of opening the oven door will cause your puds to droop. Nobody wants a saggy Yorkshire that you can’t pour gravy into.

Time to experiment?

Now that you have mastered the classic recipe for the ultimate Yorkshire, you may feel ready to push the boundaries and experiment.

2016’s Great British Bake Off champion, Nadiya Hussain, controversially reinvented the traditional Yorkshire on one of her culinary trip around the UK.

She filled the pastry cups with custard and jam, which may sound like a crime against British tradition, but is actually rather delicious.

If you’re feeling even more adventurous, you can also check out other fusions, from monster-size Yorkshire pudding burritos, to an enormous pudding filled with sausage meat, tomato and cheese to make Yorkshire pud pizza.

Unsurprisingly, the latter clocks up a whopping 1,500 calories so perhaps not the best option for those looking to stick to Public Health England's new advice that Brits consume no more than 1,800 calories a day.

This article has been updated. It was originally published in December 2017.