About the Recipe
Yorkshire pudding is a sort of bread or pancake, more or less. It's something like a popover, but shaped differently, and it complements meat dishes nicely. We like it on its own, too.
We got this recipe from our friend Audrey when we visited her in St. Mawes, Cornwall. It's very simple, and I like it better than any I've had in restaurants.
Ingredients
3 oz flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs
½ cup milk
½ cup water, mixed with the milk
2-4 oz butter, or similar amount of meat drippings
Preparation
Sift flour, salt, and pepper into bowl, to get it light and airy. 3 oz is about 3/8 of a cup or a little more, depending on packing.
Break eggs into bowl with dry ingredients. Beat a little until somewhat mixed, then add milk and water mixture gradually, beating until homogeneous.
Prepare a pan. A 9"×9" cake pan does well, but any moderately shallow pan should work fine. Put butter or meat drippings in pan, and put the pan into a 400° oven to melt the butter and get the pan warm.
Pour the whole liquid batter into the pan, and put the pan back into the 400° oven to cook for 40 minutes to an hour. The surface should be crispy and medium brown when done.
Audrey said that, in Yorkshire, they cook it in much thinner sheets "almost like pancakes," and that they serve it before the rest of the meal, with gravy.