Toad in the Hole

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The rain is crashing down, the wind is swirling around the garden, the leaves are flying off the trees and making a new carpet on my muddy, wet lawn. Autumn has landed. And so too has comfort food! Toad in the Hole served with creamy mashed potatoes and lashings of caramelised onion gravy is about as ‘comfort food’ as it gets!

Toad in the Hole is a classic British dish; meaty delicious pork sausages cooked in a Yorkshire Pudding batter. It absolutely has to:

• have a crispy outer layer,
• have a softer layer on the inside,
• be infused with the flavours from your favourite pork sausage as well as some grainy mustard,
• be served with creamy mashed potatoes, and, of course
• be smothered in lashings of thick, sweet caramelised onion gravy

It is an absolute favourite in our house both as a family meal or as a delicious dinner for friends on a cold evening. It is also surprisingly easy to make; the only thing you have to be careful about is timing – you need to serve it as soon as you take it out of the oven. When it cones out of the oven it will have all puffed up and be light and airy – just like Yorkshires. It will however, loose that puffed up look very quickly so make sure all your side dishes are ready to serve at that point.

It will still taste amazing even if it has sunk a bit; in fact, by the time I had photographed this and we ate it, had sunk a bit, and I can confirm it was still out of this world. Andrew even had some leftovers for breakfast and it was still magnificent apparently.

How to make Toad in the Hole

Collect all your ingredients together:

• vegetable oil
• sausages
• plain/all-purpose flour
• fine salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• eggs
• unsalted butter, melted
• milk
• water
• grainy mustard

Preheat your oven to Fan oven 210C/230C/450F/Gas Mark 8. Brush the inside of your baking dish with the vegetable oil and add the sausages. Cook for 5 minutes in the oven. Remove from the oven, prick the sausages and then put back in the oven for a further 5 minutes.

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Whilst the sausages are in the oven, make the batter. Add the flour, salt, pepper, mustard, eggs, melted butter and water to a bowl and beat until mixed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat again. Add the milk and beat on a slow speed until thoroughly incorporated. It should the consistency of double/heavy cream.

NB I use this amount of batter for 6 or 8 sausages. If making a small portion with just 4 sausages, I would halve the amount of batter, and if I was using more sausages, I would increase the batter proportionately. The quantity here would serve 2 – 3 people depending on how hungry you are!

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Remove the sausages from the oven and turn the temperature down to 200C/220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. They should have released some oil and lots of flavour from the sausages. There should be around 1 – 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in the pan. If not, add a little more. Pour the batter in around the sausages and put straight back in the oven. Cook for 35 – 40 minutes until the sausages have cooked through, have turned a chestnut brown, the batter has puffed up, the outside of the batter is crispy and the inside is soft.

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Whilst the Toad is cooking, prepare and cook your potatoes for the mash, as well as the onion gravy. On this occasion, I used some frozen gravy which I defrosted and heated up. If I was making it from scratch, I would start the onions cooking before putting the sausages in the oven and making the batter. For the Caramelised Onion Gravy with Marsala Wine and Maple Syrup recipe, please see here.

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I’ve been cooking potatoes for over 45 years and they always boil over and make a mess every single time! Arghhh! I defrosted some onion gravy by adding a little water and cooking over a moderate heat until defrosted.

Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.