Do not laugh at me, but I nearly cried when after purchasing a new oven, my Yorkshire puddings once again flopped. My mix was ready, and my beef dripping heating in a hot oven 425ºFahrenheit/220ºCelsius/Gas Mark 7. I patiently rubbed my hands in glee as they cooked, convinced I would be greeted with an explosion of batter, crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and filled with air. Instead I was met with stodgy depressed fairy cakes.

Defeated I resigned myself to the fact once again my Christmas dinner would consist of ready made supermarket Yorkshire puddings.

And this would have remained the end of the story. Then this evening I found myself with an empty house, and a box of eggs nearing their use by date. The determined and stubborn part of me decided to have a Yorkshire pudding fest.

This is what I did to achieve success:

Add beef dripping to a 12 cup muffin tray, and heat in an oven at 425ºFahrenheit/220ºCelsius/Gas Mark 7. Whisk 5 medium eggs, with a cup of full cream milk and a little salt. Then add a cup of plain flour and whisk batter until smooth. Remove muffin tray from the oven and quickly fill each cup no more than half full (the dripping is hot enough when the batter sizzles and begins to puff when added).

I was so busy making sure my oven was hot enough the mistake I had been making was adding too much batter to the tray.

Homemade Yorkshire puddings this Christmas. Wahey!