Yorkies, Velvet Drapped, and Shrinkage
The Yorkshire Pudding Trials
I whipped up the simple batter and preheated my muffin tin. The Yorkies went in. The oven light was on, and I was crouched down, ready to watch the show. A few minutes went by, and nothing happened. I scrolled a little, pet the cat, and when I turned back towards the glowing oven, I saw them. My Yorkshire puddings were rising! I kept watching; it is so fascinating to see baking in action. You don’t get the same instant gratification watching a cinnamon crunch bread bake for 65 minutes 😂, lawn chair out, newspaper in hand, in it for the long game.
The timer went off, and I did the visual check. Is it brown enough? The trick here is that you want things to be brown but not burned, a fine line, my friends. They looked perfect, and I pulled them from the oven and set them on a rack to cool. I could barely control my greedy little hands from tearing into the piping hot Yorkies. In the few seconds between turning off the timer and putting the oven mitts away, I watched my beautifully puffed-up Yorkies shrivel into sad little dough balls. I stood there HORRIFIED. Trying to process what just happened. They looked picture perfect less than 60 seconds ago. I kept staring at them, trying to use my Jedi mind tricks to will them to spring back to life. No dice.
One of my favorite meals of the trip was the Sunday Roast. I love the vibe, the richness, that turkey is nowhere in sight, and the fact that the entire meal is drapped in velvety brown gravy🤤🤤🤤 Sign. Me. Up.
Soooo, I decided to host a Sunday Roast themed Thanksgiving this year (pause for the oohs and aahs). The menu will look something like this: Prime rib, mashed potatoes (probably with cheese), roasted carrots and parsnips, peas, a salad, lots of gravy, and of course Yorkshire Puddings (thus all the practice)! I know better than to roll out of bed on Thanksgiving morning and be like Now, where is that Yorkshire pudding recipe, it’s gotta be around here somewhere…You don’t do that either, right? Try to make something for the first time on the day of a big event…right?!
Why all the fuss over a Yorkshire pudding? It’s a crisp on the outside, tender on the inside, baked good. Tall puffed sides with a hollow center, it is perfectly shaped to pair with our beloved gravy. Made from a simple batter of eggs, milk, flour, and salt. Similar to pancakes but with a wildly different final result. The puff, aka rise (puff feels cuter though💁♀️), on the Yorkies comes from the baking method, adding the batter to hot oil preheated in the muffin pan. Whereas our friend the pancake gets its puff from the baking powder in the batter. Don’t get your head in a tizzy about that; it just feels relevant to note.
Attempt number one.
It was a fail, or if we want to phrase that positively, attempt one was a learning opportunity. I went back to the drawing board to see if I could diagnose the great Yorkie shrinkage. Turns out there is no shortage of 127 ways to course correct a shrunken Yorkie. The trick here is to not change everything at once (this is my natural instinct, BURN IT DOWN), but to sus out one adjustment, two if you just can’t help yourself, and try again. By changing one thing at a time, you are able to track what changes are actually working.
Does anyone have the patience to work like this? I maybe could find it, BUT then what? Am I then stuck with 127 batches of Yorkshire puddings??? Not a devastating disaster by any means, but I also don’t want a muffin stump situation on my hands.
Another tricky issue to resolve is which of the 127 things do we change first? I encourage a little research. If you happen to find yourself on some deep Reddit thread about something waaaay off topic, welcome to the club. Course correct back to the Yorkie train and bookmark your page on prison dating success stories for later.
The first adjustment I made was to use a different recipe, to do with the ratio of milk to egg. Second adjustment 😬 was to make sure the oil in the muffin tin was properly preheated. A key factor in Yorkshire puddings getting a good rise is that you need to preheat the oil (I used beef tallow) in the muffin tin until the oil is hot and smoking. Then you swiftly pour the batter into the sizzling oil and put it back into the oven as quickly as humanly possibly without jostling it. You must jostle the Yorkies!
Attempt number two
PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE! The Yorkies had risen a decent amount, and when pulled from the oven, they held their proud shape. Progress is exciting and will fuel you to keep moving forward. Were they perfect, nah. While the rise was acceptable, the inside was still a tad doughy…not ideal. More research to do.
First adjustment I made for the third attempt was again making sure the oil in the muffin tins was properly HOT. I will preheat them for 15 minutes just to be safe. Wanting the Yorkies to be beautiful AND cooked through, I needed to focus on oven temperature. The move would be to start the oven at 430 degrees until the Yorkies got the puff and brown that we were looking for (puff and brown should be the name of something). Then turn the oven down to 375 degrees so the Yorkies would continue to cook through without browning too much.
Side note on ovens and Yorkshire puddings, it helps to NOT use convection (a fan) when baking these, as the fan can disturb the rising of the Yorkies and either make them look wonky (which is fine) or it can cook them unevenly (not as fine).
Attempt number three
STUNNING, BEAUTIFUL, and cooked through! Although a touch on the darker side. They didn’t taste burned, but were on the cusp. Maybe a touch less time in the oven. What a transformation in three attempts and a decent amount of research. But what were we expecting? To whip up a batch of Yorkshire puddings to absolute perfection on the first go? I am betting the answer is yes.
The reality is, I could have just shown you my third Yorkshire pudding and been like OMG, you guys, this Yorkie turned out perfectly, and you can make one too😘😘😘. (Said using heavy vocal fry.) The reality is you CAN, it just might take some practice. But with my quirky guidance, you might find yourself a touch ahead of the pack when it comes to knocking your Yorkies out of the park for your next very special Sunday Roast!
If you are feeling inspired to give Yorkshire Puddings a try, here is the recipe I referenced from Serious Eats. You should be weighing your ingredients when baking, but this recipe offers Cups and Tablespoons.
The Best Yorkshire Pudding Recipe
Things I learned so you don’t have to:
Set your oven to 430 degrees (no convection).
Turn oven temp down to 375 degrees after 15 minutes OR when your Yorkies are puffed and brown.
Make these a few days or a week in advance; they freeze really well. This helps you save time, oven space, and sanity. On the day you are serving them, let them defrost and then toss them in the oven to re-crisp.
Even if they don’t turn out perfectly, they still taste good, and you can eat them anyway. The tiny dough balls in attempt one tasted great, and I ate them after giving them an extra toast in the oven to cook them through. All was not lost!
When the yorkies are done, turn off the oven and crack the door. Allowing them to cool down slowly helps to prevent shrinkage.
Embrace the wild shapes! This is part of the fun! No two puddins will look the same.
I would LOVE to know if anyone has tried to make Yorkshire Puddings or has even had a Yorkshire Pudding! Keep me posted on your Yorkshire Pudding Adventures, please!
Also, the next theme for Kitchen Confessional is Thanksgiving. Hit me with some good ones. I know you have them. This is the time of year when we all overpromise, overcommit, overdress, overcook, and overfeed the cat, all while simultaneously underdelivering, underdeligating, and underpreparing. It’s stressful and chaotic, and we WANT to hear about all of it! I have a turkey devastation and a mashed potato wallpaper paste situation to kick us off. Send me a message with your Thanksgiving mishap story!
We are back to Foodcapades next week! Are y’all enjoying that? It’s been incredibly fun for me to write about. Share this Yorkshire Pudding adventure with someone who owes you a yorkie. You might just get it😊.
Cheers,
Nicole | Butter Cult
