Proper Yorkshire Puddings (2024)

My Proper Yorkshire Puddings are like the ones that my grandparents generation made. Golden brown, crispy on top, a lesseittle puddingy down below and with a hole which is the perfect gravy receptacle. I’ve has such great feedback from my Yorkie Pud recipe, you should definitely try it too!

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So whats “proper” about my “Proper Yorkshire Puddings”? Its simple. My recipe makes the kind of Yorkshire puddings that Brits have been making at home for generations.

There has been a trend in recent years, especially in pubs and restaurants to start making Yorkies with so many eggs that they puff up four or five times larger than their tin. I think we’re in an age where its ok to accept that size isn’t everything.

They are there for purposes of bulking out a £17 Sunday roast but don’t make for great eating. I don’t want a Yorkshire that cuts the inside of my mouth, doesn’t taste of anything and that I can’t fill with a little meat and gravy.

Yorkshires should be soft with a little bit of crispy and golden brown with a hole in the middle. And thats that!

Yorkshire Puddings are not health food. Trying to make low fat versions just don’t work. My recipe uses a really good amount of oil. I would rather make them right every now and again than have a substandard version on the regular.

I just consider them a treat rather than an everyday food. But saying this, the Yorkshire Puddings should cook IN the oil. Not absorb it all. So don’t panic too much!

Why are Yorkshire Pudding so Difficult to Make?

They’re not! Yorkshire Puddings are one of the easiest things to make! There is zero need to be put off or scared! It drives me bonkers that there seems to be some kind of perpetual myth that Yorkshire Pudding recipes contain sorcery.

Just like with poached eggs, there are only a few very basic rules that you need to follow to get it right every time.

• Make sure the fat is absolutely sizzling hot.
• Don’t open the oven door in the first 15 minutes of cooking.
• Be confident.

Many recipes tell you to rest your batter for anything up to 24 hours. I’ve never seen the need. My Yorkshire Puddings that are whipped up and cooked straight away are perfect. So no pre-planning is required and all the ingredients can usually be found in most houses.

And thats it. You don’t need a whole book. Just a hot oven and a little confidence. I’ve actually eyeballed the recipe for most of my life, I’ve only established the quantities that I use for the purposes of sharing my recipe.

How to Serve Traditional Yorkshire Puddings

There are many more ways to serve Yorkies than you might think.

Of course the obvious choice is to serve with a roast meal. There are some camps that seem to think that they should ONLY be served with roast beef like my Beef Sirloin and Gravy. Now why you would deny yourself Yorkshire puddings with all other roasts is a mystery to me. The same could be said for Roast Potatoes too, another classic accompaniment.

Originally Yorkshire Puddings were actually served as a starter with gravy. The idea was to fill up on stodge before the main (and much more expensive) event. Hawksmoor restaurant serves Yorkshires as starter with potted beef & bacon and bone marrow gravy. Its a stunning dish but unfortunately they didn’t get the “Proper Yorkshire Pudding” memo!

This recipe can be used to make two large Yorkshires using 20cm cake tins. These are traditionally filled with roast dinner ingredients or sausage and mash. And gravy of course!

Or you can make one large Yorkshire in a large roasting tin. If you add sausages to the pan before the batter, you will end up with Toad in the Hole.

My last serving suggestion is controversial to some. Have them for dessert. You know the batter is just pancake batter right? So its not actually that weird after all.

My favourite way to eat them sweet is simply doused in golden syrup. The other more traditional options include, jam, cream and maybe even ice cream. At the end of the day, if you’d put it on a pancake, you can probably put it on a Yorkshire.

Make Proper Yorkshire Puddings into a Feast

I truly believe that you can make any dish into a proper feast! Whether that’s a feast for one after work on a Tuesday, a casual feast for four on a Friday evening or a feast for 12 for a special occasion!

My Roast Chicken makes the perfect accompaniment to yorkies. Try making a simple gravy by thickening the juices with cornflour or using my Get Ahead Gravy recipe. Of course there are plenty of other great sides to add like Pigs in Blankets, Stuffing, Roast Parsnips and Vichy Carrots. Or they make a great cheeky accompaniment to other hearty British dishes like my Quick Pan Aggie.

Don’t forget to head over to my Feast Collection pages to find all of my tips and tricks to help you host a fun and stress-free feast. Plus remember to check out my recipe index to create your own awesome Feast!

Ingredients for Proper Yorkshire Puddings

Flour

You must use plain flour in this recipe. This is the same as all purpose or ap flour in the US. Basically the flour should not have any raising agents in it.

You can make yorkshire puddings with spelt flour (actually I think they are really good made with white spelt) or a good gluten free blend.

I have never tried using a wholemeal flour for yorkshire puddings. But it would likely work. Obviously the flavour would be nuttier. You could experiment with any flour really. Pasta flour, cake flour (not one with raising agents in it) will give you a different texture overall but should still rise and be tasty

Can I make Yorkshire Puddings with Self Raising Flour?

No! Sorry! Do not, under any circ*mstances, use self raising flour to make yorkshire puddings. Self raising flour is known as self rising flour in the US.

Yorkshire Puddings made with self raising flour won’t puff up in the correct way and simply don’t work! You might that that they’d just rise more and fluffier, but you’d be wrong.

I get asked this question so often I conducted a side by side experiment. I made exactly the same batter with self raising flour, plain flour and cornflour. All these photos show the results in that order. We will entirely ignore the cornflour experiment. They were tooth breaking.

So you can see that even though the self raising yorkies looked like they we’re in first place for the first 5 minutes of cooking, the ended up domed and smaller than the plain flour version.

To be fair they don’t look too bad. A little smaller and lacking in gravy hole perhaps. But then you cut into them. And realise that actually you have made pancakes and not Yorkshire Puddings! Tasting them proves this assessment.

Don’t get me wrong they taste fine. Dipped in sugar! But they would be incredibly weird with a roast dinner. I might actually make them again as a super easy doughnut alternative…

Fat

Traditionally you would use beef drippings or lard. I actually prefer to use vegetable oil. The beef thing is tasty but harder to control and to be honest it kind of puts me off having any leftovers for pudding!

You could alternatively use vegetable shortening or sunflower oil. I wouldn’t use olive or rapeseed oil here as the flavour is too overwhelming.

Milk

I prescribe skimmed milk in my recipe. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly that is what I have in the fridge at all time. Its not especially a health thing, I just grew up drinking it and find anything more creamy, well, too creamy!

The second reason is that I think that using skimmed milk, with its lower fat content, gives a more delicate, softer texture to the final Yorkshire Puddings. There are many recipes that call for milk and water to be used. I guess that using skimmed just cuts out that middle man.

But I do understand that most people keep semi-skimmed or whole milk in the house as standard and you shouldn’t have to go out on a special shopping trip to whip up some yorkies. So with semi, I would swap out about 1/5 of the milk for water. With whole milk, I would swap out somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 for water.

Eggs

Any eggs will do here. Super fresh, not quite so fresh, fridge cold, room temp, medium or large. I’ve never found any difference made.

Be Flexible

I’ve talked above about making the Yorksire Puddings plate size and fillable as well as making one large one instead of the 12 small ones per my recipe.

You can add flavours to the batter such as mustard, herbs and spices. But to me, the joy of a Proper Yorkshire Pudding is it’s classic taste which provides a slightly bland foil to the foods they’re being served with.

The flexibility of a Yorkshire largely lies with how it is served.

Make it Vegetarian

Providing that you don’t go down the beef dripping or lard route, my Yorkshire Pudding recipe is suitable for vegetarians.

Make Vegan Yorkshire Puddings

I’ve done a little research into making vegan Yorkshire Puddings and there are so many options out there, I honestly don’t know which I’d recommend. One that I have seen simply uses a plant based milk instead of regular milk and omits the eggs. This is certainly worth a try.

There are other recipes out there which use self-raising flour (an absolute no no usually) so I’m not convinced by that and another that uses coconut milk. Which I just think is going to taste strange. Others use chickpea water to replicate the rise of the egg.

On balance I think I would recommend swapping the milk and trying one of the new egg substitutes like “Easy Vegan Egg”. Apologies that I am not more help on this one.

Make it Allergy Friendly

Yorkshire puddings are free from nuts.

Dairy Free: Use a flavour free plant based milk instead of the skimmed milk.

Egg Free: As mentioned above in the ‘make it vegan’ section, I would recommend experimenting with an egg substitute.

Gluten Free: You can swap in a gluten free flour in place of the plain flour. If you use a good one like the one in the link, the difference should be negligible.

Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.

Equipment Notes for Proper Yorkshire Puddings

Having spent years experimenting, I’ve decided that a muffin tin makes the best yorkies. I find a cake tin is a little shallow to get a really good straight rise on the puddings. And as for “yorkshire pudding tins“? I have no idea what they are playing at but I would avoid avoid avoid!

I make my measuring jug do double duty. I use it to measure the milk but then I decant my batter into it to pour into the tins. Any excuse to minimise washing up!

A good whisk is essential to getting a smoothish batter. I have a selection including large and small metal whisks. But it is my sturdy silicone whisk that I turn to again and again.

A comprehensive list of the equipment used to make this recipe is included in the main recipe card below. Click on any item to see an example. There are no hard and fast rules so many items can be sensibly substituted to achieve the same results.

Get Ahead

Yorkshire Puddings are best made just before you are serving them. You can however make the batter up in advance. Whilst I don’t see any benefit recipe-wise in leaving he batter to rest before cooking, I also don’t see any detriment. Leave covered in the fridge until you are ready to go.

You can cook the Yorkshire Puddings a little in advance, leave them in their tins then add back to a hot oven to warm them back through. Not a perfect option but it actually does work surprisingly well.

Leftover Proper Yorkshire Puddings

I rarely have any actual leftover Yorkshire Puddings as I can eat at least 6 in one sitting. But I do often make sure that I make extra to ensure that I have some leftover for dessert.

You can reheat Yorkshire Puddings but they are not wholly amazing. You will have hot puddings but not like the ones that came fresh out of the oven. For dessert, I will mostly just use the microwave but you can pop them back in an oven to heat through. They will retain a little more crispiness that way.

Any leftover batter can be used to make pancakes. The batter is exactly the same.

Authentic Yorkshire Pudding Tips

There is a LOT of oil in this recipe. You can use less but the best Yorkies come about by using a shedload of oil – fact. My Nanny Vi made the best Yorkshires in the world and she certainly didn’t skimp on the fat.

The oil can overspill in the oven. I find its a good idea to put the muffin tin into a larger baking tray to make removing it from the oven easier and to catch any drips.

Whilst getting the batter nice and smooth early on in the mixing process is ideal, a few lumps are not the end of the world so don’t stress about it.

I have deliberately been a little vague with timings. All ovens are different and never more so than with Yorkshire Puddings. Just keep checking and take them out when they are where you want to eat them.

Never line the tins. That’s just a disaster waiting to happen!

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?

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