I’ve had this post sitting in my draft box since last December, but a little late is better than never, so here goes!
Last December, I went back home to California to spend the holidays with my friends and family. Since I don’t get opportunities to host dinner parties in my tiny NYC apartment, I pretty much jump at any chance that I get to cook for anyone who will let me try something new.
In brainstorming on possible new recipes to try for our Mas-giving (Christmas + Thanksgiving) celebration with my college friends, I settled on trying to make my first prime rib dinner. When I think of a good prime rib, I think to my meals at House of Prime Rib in San Francisco – with a name like that, how can it be bad right? I recall my favorite parts of the meal is when the waiter brings around the piping hot yorkshire pudding – essentially a piece of flat baked bread that allows you to soak up all the juices from the prime rib.
After a bit of research, I found out that Yorkshire Pudding is actually really easy to make and requires very few ingredients. I really liked the idea of putting the batter into each individual slots in a muffin pan to make individual portions. The perfect Yorkshire Pudding would be crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Somehow a few of mine turned to rise with weird spirals but this only meant having more of that crispy exterior for me.
It all begins with equal portions of room temperature eggs, flour and milk. It’s easiest to make sure you have your proportions right by measuring out all your eggs first since egg sizes may vary, then measuring out the flour and milk in two different cups.
When you’re ready to cook the pudding, crank up your oven to about 500 degrees. Grease your muffin pan with beef drippings if you’re making a prime rib, or just vegetable oil if you’re not. Toss the pan into the oven for the pan to pre-heat and be piping hot. This step is important as the super hot pan will help the pudding cook and rise.
Pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the yorkshire pudding is a nice golden brown like the picture below. Serve hot and happily dip it into your prime rib jus.
Looking for other things to serve with your prime rib? How about this Potato, Celery Roots and Leeks Gratin? It is seriously amazing.
Yorkshire Pudding
makes about 12 in muffin pan
4 large eggs
Equal amount of milk to eggs
Equal amount of flour to eggs
Beef drippings or 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
pinch of salt1. Measure out ingredients. In 3 different containers of the same size, crack the eggs, then measure out equal amounts of milk and flour as you have in eggs. I used 3 glass cups for this.
2. Make batter & rest batter. Whisk the eggs and milk together. When it’s well mixed, start sifting flour into the batter and continue whisking, making sure there are no lumps. Add a pinch of salt once you’re done whisking and let the batter rest in the kitchen for at least 30 minutes, up to two hours.
3. Put in oven. When you’re ready to serve the yorkshire pudding (these babies are better piping hot!), crank up your oven to about 500 degrees. Grease your muffin pan with your oil of choice and place in oven to have the pan preheat. When the pan is hot, take it out and quickly pour in your batter. Put back in oven and heat for about 20 minutes, but watch it closely to make sure it doesn’t burn. Take out of oven carefully and serve!
