Yorkshire Pudding tests - gluten-free

I decided to test a yorkshire pudding recipe I got from the BBC Good Food website.  I used my standard gf flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal).

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9020/best-yorkshire-puddings

Basic recipe

Oven – as hot as you can get it – 200C (recipe calls for 220C)

2 eggs

70 g flour

100 ml milk

Grease tins with oil and put in oven to get as hot as possible. 

Mix batter.  When ready pour into tins as swiftly as possible and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

As gf flours don’t brown the same way as wheat, if you want a darker Yorkshire pudding without burning put a little sugar into the batter.

First pudding.  

They rose up to the top of the muffin tins I was baking them in.  This was a lot less spectacular than the descriptions of the puddings posted as comments on the recipe webpage.   The puddings were pleasant to eat, and better than some I have been served in people’s houses before I went gf.   I cooked them longer to try and get them browner.

Second pudding

Recipe 1 gave an acceptable result, but I wanted to see what would happen if I made them dairy free.  I had two egg whites left over from a previous recipe, so made a batch with these.  I had meant to try one egg white only, but it is so difficult to separated a bit of egg white out that I just put both in.  I expected these to have more body, to be less tender, as that is what egg white is supposed to do in baking.

Recipe

1 egg

2 egg whites

75 g flour

100 ml water

Whisk batter together and cook in hot oven as before.

These puddings were paler (less egg yolk) and seemed slightly tougher but not chewy.  TT said there wasn’t much in it apart from this slight toughness.  I thought they tasted eggier.  When cut in half you can see that the middle is more structured, with air bubbles visible, rather than the almost custardy base of the first pudding.

Third pudding

Following on from the doughnut tests yesterday I thought I would find out what baking powder does for this recipe.  Purists will say it is no longer a Yorkshire Pudding if you add baking powder, but it is probably not a Yorkshire Pudding really once you skip the wheat!

Recipe

75 g flour

1tsp baking powder

½ tsp oil (haven’t tried this without, don’t know if it helps)

2 eggs

100ml water

Mix wet ingredients together

Mix flour and baking powder (whisk or sieve)

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until smooth.

Put in hot greased tin in hot oven for about 25 minutes until puffed and golden.

These ones puffed the highest and they didn’t collapse immediately on leaving the oven.  They taste more like the first traditional YP, and have the same slightly custardy base, but rose twice as far.  I don’t think most people would know they were gluten free or dairy free. 

The three types together - uncut and cut to show the middle texture

recipes 1, 2 and 3

recipes 1, 2 and 3

recipes 1, 2 and 3, cut

Batter three worked very well and gives a lactose and well as gluten-free Yorkshire Pudding.  

I have put some in the freezer to see how they will be defrosted.  Ideally with this sort of food, unless you are cooking for a crowd (and maybe even more then) it is good to be able to get a single portion out of the freezer when needed.

I used to always use hard white vegetable fat for the base of the tins and to get the tin very hot by having it on the stove and getting the fat to smoking point.  This always struck me as a bit arduous and dangerous.  These little puddings worked so well I shan’t be bothering with that in future.