Seeing Victoria Rushton’s huge Yorkshire pud in the paper this week, Mirror writer Vikki White felt the urge to... rise to the challenge.
The Yorkshire gran’s absolute beast of a batter – almost two entire feet across – had stirred something in her amateur chef ’s soul.
We were dubious she would be able to bake a pud quite as magnificent as Victoria’s, so we asked her to write about how the challenge went.
We also sent a photographer to record whether she managed to replicate the 23-inch whopper in her very own kitchen.
Here’s how our Vikki got on...
While I’m not a master chef by any stretch of the imagination, I do know my way around a kitchen.
Supersized cooking, however, isn’t my forte and I haven’t made Yorkshire puddings for ages. Yes, I’m getting my excuses in early.
I’m used to cooking for my family of three, which includes a preschooler who mainly likes Pom-Bears, so first I needed to head to the shops for a giant roasting tin that I could squeeze into my oven. Then I realised I’d need a giant mixing bowl too.
I normally like to cook ‘off piste’ rather than follow a recipe but I don’t usually have a photographer in my kitchen so I decided to follow a method this time.
The giant pudding recipe I found included four eggs but the picture looked pitiful in comparison to Victoria’s huge pudding so I doubled it.
As Victoria advises to use ‘plenty of eggs’ I decided to add in two more, upping other quantities to keep the proportions right.
Ten eggs, 550g of flour, 550ml of liquid and a teaspoon of salt later I had a pretty smooth batter – and an aching right arm from all the whisking.
Victoria says a very hot tray is a must and when I poured in my batter there was a reassuring sizzle. Game on!
Now all I could do was wait but 20 minutes seemed a ridiculously long time to cook a Yorkshire, even a giant one. My oven light is on the blink so I couldn’t see if my pud was rising but with my editor’s words ‘Whatever you do, DON’T open the oven’ ringing in my ears, I made myself a cup of tea.
As the familiar smell filled my kitchen, I felt increasingly confident.
Time up and I was pleased with the end result. My giant pudding didn’t have as many peaks and troughs as Victoria’s but it had risen nicely and spilled over the edge of the tray.
My Yorkshire pud measured 18in rather than 23in as my oven is smaller than Victoria’s.
But it tasted so good, I’ll be making it on Christmas Day this year rather than relying on Aunt Bessie’s frozen ones.
