Gruyere & Carrot Yorkshire Puddings
During this time of global sacrifice, I’m highlighting recipes that make use of pantry staples. These are the kinds of recipes you can go to even when you feel like you have nothing in your kitchen. This recipe in particular makes use of bacon grease – something we often keep around our kitchens, but don’t always use up.
Don’t just feel free to make substitutions in this recipe; it’s encouraged! Don’t have Gruyere? Use whatever cheese you have, or go without (they’ll still be good!). Don’t have bacon grease, or don’t eat pork? You can use schmaltz, beef tallow, ghee or even just spray the pan with Pam.
I wanted to put a Yorkshire Pudding recipe up here because it’s a tried and true recipe, so fast and easy to make, but they feel like a real treat. They’re a bit mystifying to behold, and are such a surprise to pull out of the oven. It seems so unlikely that they’ll be as big and poofy as they are!
I also wanted to put this carrot-y version up here because I found a wonderful article about all the ways the British Ministry of Food promoted carrots during WWII, one of which was to grate them up and put them in puddings (sweet AND savory).
They came up with many ingenious and wacky ways to use carrots. I love carrots! They’re such a great veg to have around, to use profusely, and add nutrition to something like…well…a Yorkshire pudding (they have eggs in them! Eggs are good for you!). Check out the quirky World Carrot Museum here. I don’t think they’ve updated their formatting since 2002 and hence is my new favorite website.
Carrot & Gruyere Yorkshire Pudding
Equipment
- Muffin tin
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 4 3/4 oz all-purpose flour (about 3/4 cup)
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 small carrot, grated
- 1/2 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
- 5 tsp bacon grease (or beef tallow, duck fat, schmaltz, or ghee. Use what you have on hand, but avoid whole butter.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place empty muffin tin in oven to get hot while you make the batter.
- Place milk in small saucepan and gently warm on stove over medium-low heat. Milk should be just warm to the touch.
- Crack eggs into medium bowl, and whisk a bit just to break them up. Once milk is warm, slowly pour it into the eggs, whisking the whole time.
- Whisk flour and salt into milk & eggs. Add grated carrot, and mix thoroughly, but don't over-mix (you want to avoid developing too much gluten). Batter should look like a loose pancake batter. Set aside, and let batter rest while you prep your tins.
- Carefully pull hot muffin tin out of oven. Place 1/2 tsp of bacon grease (or other fat) into each muffin tin. Return tin to oven and let fat get real hot.
- Once again, pull tin out of oven. Fill each tin about 2/3 full (about 3 TBSP batter), and sprinkle lightly with cheese. Return tin to oven and bake for about 15 minutes, rotating halfway through bake time. Puddings should be golden brown, very poofy, and crisp.
- Remove from tins to cool on wire rack. Enjoy immediately, or cool, store covered tightly in plastic and reheat in oven to enjoy up to 1 day later.