Chef makes Yorkshire puddings rise ‘sky high’ every time with simple oven change

At the heart of any good roast dinner is always and without doubt a

Made from just a couple of simple ingredients, the light, crispy, and fluffy batter transforms into something much greater than its parts, perfect for transporting a little slice of roast beef and a bucket-load of gravy.

However, despite most recipes calling for just three ingredients, making the perfect puddings from scratch can be much easier said than done.

We’ve all had a roast dinner where the Yorkshires looked more like a ice-hockey puck and failed to rise, but one chef has workshopped several different techniques to create a that works every single time.

Chef Ben Goshawk highlights a key component that is core to but is often overlooked – heat.

Yorkshire puddings are extremely sensitive to heat, from preheating your oven to pouring the batter in hot oil there are lots of tips and tricks to try and get the dough to rise but Chef Ben says that getting even heat to your Yorkshires is the key.

The chef said: “I want sky-high yorkies and there are two things that are stopping that, the initial impact of the heat in the oven and the fan in the oven.

“Major lopsidedness is because of heat and air movement, the heat isn’t getting to the centre of the tray because it’s being blocked by the other parts of the Yorkies as they rise. The fan exaggerates this wonkiness even further – it’s these two factors that stop that idyllic shape.”

Testing out several different methods to try and avoid this, the chef tries a bake at three temperatures of higher heat – however none are succesful. Instead, chef Ben insists on spacing the puddings out.

The classic Sunday scene of a muffin tin full over Yorkshire puddings spilling out onto each other may on fact be the downfall. The chef reccomends half filling any tray so each Yorkshire pud has a direct line of heat from every angle.

He adds the technique gave him “light, puffy, crispy Yorkies with even colour top to bottom and much more consistent rise across all portions – this kind of method has worked a treat.”

Although the chef also warns that fan assisted ovens may cause some issues for the evenness that creates the Yorkshire’s perfect shape. Some modern ovens have both a fan and conventional settings so for them, it should be easy to turn off.

However, for those who only have fan ovens, chef Ben reccomends creating a little homemade barrier to protect your Yorkshires. He just uses a piece of folded-up tin foil and attaches it to the back of the tray creating a shield for the puds to create more consitent browning.