Recipe video above. The great British classic! Sausages nestled in a giant Yorkshire pudding, in all its puffed up glory, with delightfully crispy edges. The trick for stability is a dab of mayonnaise! Taught to me by an English chef, learned from his days working in pubs and restaurants in the UK. (See note 4)Some recipes will have you just bake the sausages from raw, but your gravy will be much tastier if you start with sausage drippings. So sear your sausages first!
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time40 minutesmins
Course: Main
Cuisine: British, English
Keyword: baked sausages, toad in the hole
Servings: 4
Calories: 1017cal
Author: Nagi
Ingredients
700g/1.4lb pork sausages, or other sausage(8 x 85g/3oz, Note 1)
10g / 2 tspbeef drippings OR canola/veg oil(Note 4)
Yorkshire pudding Batter:
250 ml / 1 cup eggs, lightly whisked (4-5 large eggs, yes, I need you to measure! Note 2)
1cupplain flour(all-purpose flour)
3/4cupmilk, full fat
1/4cupwater
1tbspmayonnaise, full-fat (secret ingredient! See Note 3)
1/2tspcooking salt(kosher salt)
Pinchwhite pepper
50g (1/4 cup)beef drippings OR canola/veg oil(Note 4)
Onion gravy:
30g / 2 tbspbeef drippings OR unsalted butter(Note 4)
Batter - Whisk eggs in a bowl, then whisk in flour until lump free. Whisk in water, milk, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Place in the fridge until required.
Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F (200°C fan). Put the 1/4 cup beef drippings in a 23 x 33cm metal pan (9 x 13"). Place in the oven for 15 minutes to melt and become very hot.
Brown sausages - Heat the 2 tsp (10g) of drippings in a pan over medium high heat. Brown the sausages all over, but keep one side just lightly browned (this side will brown more in the oven). Keep them raw inside. Remove onto a plate.
Assemble - Take batter out of fridge and whisk. Working quickly, take the hot pan out of oven. Spread sausages in the pan, lightly browned side up, keeping clear of the pan walls (Note 5 for arranging tip). Pour the batter in around the sausages.
Bake - Bake 25 minutes on the top shelf until the sides puff up and is golden brown. The top of the edges should be nice and crispy!
Serve immediately with onion gravy! Expect some deflation - though far less than typical recipes thanks to the mayo.
Onion gravy (Note 6):
Brown onion - Add beef drippings into the pan used for browning the sausages. Melt over high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring constantly, until nicely browned (~5 minutes). Add garlic and stir 30 seconds. Add flour and stir for 1 minute so it's well mixed through the onions (= lump-free gravy!).
Add stock - Slowly pour in beef stock, stirring as you go. Add Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.
Thicken - Bring to a simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes until thickens into a gravy. Keep warm until ready to use!
Notes
1. Any sausages will work here but you don't want giant ones else they will cover too much surface area of the Yorkshire pudding.2. Eggs - I wouldn't ask you to measure if it didn't matter. It doesn't always matter, not even for cakes. But for excellent Yorkshire pudding, it matters! Hens are so selfish, why can't they just lay eggs exactly the same size, every time??3. Mayonnaise trick - Taught to my by my English chef at RecipeTin Meals (my food bank), learnt from his days working in British pubs and restaurants! Stabilises the Yorkshire pudding, makes it rise taller and collapse less. Don't believe me? Try it and you'll see! (PS The batter in this recipe makes 12 perfect Yorkies, baked for 17 minutes with 1 tsp beef drippings preheated in each hole.4. Beef drippings is beef fat, the traditional fat used for Yorkshire puddings and Toad in a hole for tasty flavour and high-smoke point for cooking. Sold in tubs, firm like butter, in the fridge alongside butter. Scoop up then melt to use. Particularly good to use for the gravy as it makes it tastier, like using drippings of a roast to make good gravy.Other options - Duck fat and goose fat are both excellent alternatives with similar flavour and high smoke-points. Lard will also work well but will add a subtle pork flavour. Otherwise, use vegetable or canola oil for baking and searing sausages, and butter for the gravy (for flavour). Use leftover beef drippings to replace the fat in Bangers & Mash, gravy, mushroom gravy and duck fat potatoes.5. Keep the sausages clear of the walls else it prevents the Yorkshire pudding from puffing up impressively along the walls of the pan.6. Gravy colour comes down to the darkness of the stock you use plus how much browning on the base of your pan from the sausages + onion. If yours is a little paler than desired, no need to resort to artificial gravy browner. Just add 1/2 tsp of dark soy sauce! Can't taste it but will colour the gravy.7. Leftovers will keep 3 days but the Yorkshire pudding will soften. When I gave away leftovers, I suggested popping it in the oven at 180C/350F for 7 minutes or so to get a bit of re-crisping of the edges. Haven't tried freezing but suspect the Yorkshire pudding will not be great.Nutrition per serving, assuming 4 generous servings, 2 sausages per person. I never said it was diet food, I said it was delicious! Biggest calorie reduction via sausage reduction from 2 to 1 sausage per serving (shave off 260 calories). Save off another 130 calories by using lean chicken sausages instead of fatty (juicy!) pork ones.