TRADITIONAL TOAD IN THE HOLE

One of the best winter dinners ever!!!  Gorgeous Yorkshire pudding stuffed with our homemade Oscar's Acres Henley's Down Herb sausages, served just with garden peas and a pork stock and maderia gravy, this is a fabulous family and friends favourite in our home.

Prep time 5 minutes / Resting time 1-4hrs (optional) / Cooking time 45 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4-6)

The Yorkshire Batter

200g plain flour

200g eggs

200g milk

1 large pinch of sea salt and white pepper

Toads in the Hole

12 excellent animal welfare sausages

3 tbsp of lard or dipping

Gravy

1 ltr pork or chicken stock

300ml Maderia

50g butter

1 tbsp heaped corn flour

3 tbsp water

Make the batter first, I like to leave my batter to rest on the side at room temperature for at least half an hour and up to 4 hours.  Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees C, place you sausages in a roasting tin with the lard and pop in the oven for 20 minutes, at this point turn up the heat to 220 degrees C for five minutes, then really quickly open the oven door and pour the batter in to the roasting tin around the sausages, do this as fast as you can and pop back in the oven, I have got this down to 20 seconds, but don't rush and burn yourself!  

Leave the oven at 220 for five more minutes then turn back to 200 degrees C, for the last 15 minutes of cooking time.  This is not totally neccessary and if you are not in the kitchen during the cook or have to divide your time with the family, then just keep the oven at 200 degrees at all time.  The reason I pop the heat up is I find I can get a better rise in the batter.

Under no circumstances, well apart from burning the house down, do NOT open the oven door until the final cooking time is up.

Meanwhile to make a speedy fabulous gravy, bring the stock up to a rolling boil and reduce by half, add the Maderia and reduce by 1/3, now whisk in the butter on a lower heat.  If you want to thicken the stock gravy further add the water to the cornflour and start by adding half the cornflour mixture, whisk and cook for a few minutes before deciding to thicken further or not.  Taste and season with salt and pepper or more butter to taste.

Serve with creamy buttery mashed potatoes, peas and gravy, a winner family dinner, enjoy...