As a transplanted American, I actually had no idea what Toad in the Hole was until about 2 years ago when I heard someone mention it. I nodded along as if I knew what it was even though I had pretty much no clue what this toad thing referred to (this tends to happen to me a lot). When I looked up this weird food item and saw that it was basically a massive Yorkshire pudding with sausages in it, I became a believer.

Having had a lot of practice making Yorkies since I moved overseas (what else does one do on Sunday), I took on the challenge of making Toad in the Hole with great enthusiasm.

My fluffiest homemade Yorkshire puddings courtesy of BBC recipes

TOAD IN THE HOLE (serves 4-6 but honestly you can eat this by yourself for dinner – I know I have)

Ingredients

• 350 ml milk (best to use the fattiest milk you have, but if in a bind semi-skimmed will suffice)
• 4 eggs
• 1 pinch of salt
• 250 grams plain flour
• 400 grams pork sausages (6 in number)
• 15 ml goose fat (or vegetable shortening or oil)

Preheat the oven to 220°C

Whisk the milk and eggs together with the salt

Then whisk in the flour, beating to make a smooth batter

Now, onto the sausages. I used Chipolata, which is a type of fresh sausage; it’s relatively small but great flavor. Use whatever sausage you prefer. Instead of cooking the sausages whole in the oven with the batter, I roll the sausages into little patties and fry them in goose fat first.

Press the sausage meat out of its casing (you may need to nick the skin with a knife), half a sausage at a time, rolling it in your hands to form a ball and then squash gently to make a little patty. You should get 12 patties from the 6 sausages. Feel free to use more sausages if you want.

Heat the fat or oil in a heavy-based, flame-safe roasting tin on the stove (hob for you British lot). If you’re broke like me and can’t buy specific dishes for everything you want to make – you can just use a frying pan that is oven-safe.

Brown the patties for about 1 minute each side – you don’t need to worry about cooking them all the way through (they’ll cook in the oven), just make them look attractive.

With the patties and oil still hot, pour in the batter immediately into the pan and put into the oven for about 40 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR!!