Sunday roasts are just such a great time to sit down with the household, enjoy a sense of community and chat about the week ahead. For many, the thought of a Sunday lunch without the classic Yorkshire pudding is just a nightmare.
In fact, Yorkshire pudding is so well-loved that the first Sunday of February is an official day of celebration for the food [1].
The three main ingredients of a traditional Yorkshire pudding are egg, whole cow's milk and all-purpose flour. We know that two of those ingredients are not keto, so is it possible to make a delicious Yorkshire pudding while maintaining your ketogenic diet? Are there other real food ingredients out there that could help in creating a low-carb recipe for Yorkies?
The answer is yes, and we're here to share it with you. With this easy batter recipe, you can make Yorkies at home that are fluffy, rise well and don’t compromise your grain-free, keto lifestyle.
Winning!
Origins of Yorkshire Pudding
According to the folks over at Historic UK, Yorkshire pudding recipes date all the way back to the 1700s. The first publication to mention it was ‘The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Simple’ by Hannah Glasse in 1747, and the original way of baking them was over an open flame. Here's a quick summary [1]:
‘The pudding would have originally been cooked beneath the meat (usually beef) as it was roasting on a spit above a fire. This position would have meant that the fats and juices from the meat could drip onto the batter pudding, flavouring and adding colour. (The initial name for cooking a batter in this way was “Dripping Pudding”.) This also meant that these drippings, essential in the diet, were utilised rather than lost to the fire. Sources of these essential fats, particularly in the North of England, were more difficult to obtain at that time, especially with the high cost of meat, so every single drop was used.’
We love this historical detail, as it falls squarely in line with our ethic of eating the whole animal, from nose-to-tail.
Interestingly, while the most common method of making Yorkshire puds has moved to the oven, the effect of the original method remains. It's important to make sure your muffin tin is piping hot with some sizzling cooking fat pooled at the bottom before you add the batter. You do this by heating up the greased tin first, mimicking the open flames that would have been licking the bottom of the tin in the olden days.
Swapping Ingredients
The biggest challenge in mimicking a high-carb food with low-carb ingredients is getting the consistency and ‘chew’ to match the original.
These days, converting a recipe to gluten-free is pretty easy. There are a number of brands that make 1-to-1 substitute flours that work like a charm in simple baking like muffins, cakes and banana bread. But the vast majority of those still contain grains, potato starch, tapioca flour or some combination — far too many total and net carbs for a keto diet plan.
Most keto bakers lean heavily on almond flour (or other nut flours) and coconut flour. While these will work in some keto recipes, they perform quite differently than all-purpose flour. They're heavier and denser, and coconut flour sucks up all the liquid in a recipe, sometimes turning the finished product into a solid brick. Not great if you're looking for a fluffy, light Yorkshire pudding to go with your Sunday roast.
So what to do?
The swaps required are for the whole milk and the all-purpose flour. In our recipe, we recommend swapping milk for coconut milk or another nut milk like almond milk. Be sure to check your labels and ensure that you're getting unsweetened varieties of whatever type of milk you choose. If your body can process dairy, you might also try mimicking whole milk by cutting double cream with water (50 ml water and 50 ml double cream).
To replace the all-purpose flour while keeping the fluff and ditching the carbs, we swap it out for a combination of almond flour and arrowroot flour. Arrowroot helps solve the problem we mentioned earlier about almond flour being too heavy. We also recommend that you either search for fine almond flour or run your coarse meal through your own food processor to make it a bit finer before using it in this recipe. It will help a lot with the rise.
What Is the Best Meat To Have Alongside a Yorkshire Pudding for a Sunday Roast?
Yorkshire pudding is generally eaten with gravy as an appetiser for beef roast. While we love a good tradition, it's also fine to mix it up and roast a pork loin or large game instead. Whatever you choose, we recommend grabbing a nice piece of certified Pasture for Life meat to make sure that the meat at your table was ethically raised and will provide maximal nutrition for you and your family.
How Can I Make a Low-Carb Gravy To Go Alongside This Recipe?
Bone broth is a great base for making easy low-carb gravy at home. Be sure to keep the beef drippings and simmer the two together until slightly reduced and thickened. Add a teaspoon at a time of arrowroot, stirring constantly, to thicken in the pan along with some herbs, salt and pepper.
We recommend stirring vigorously with a whisk over very low heat as you add the arrowroot (careful not to splash!) to ensure that it doesn't get clumpy.
Cooking Tips
The key to accomplishing the perfect keto Yorkshire pud is to prep well. Standard recipes recommend making the batter a few days in advance for maximum rise and storing it in the refrigerator. Since we want our keto version to be as fluffy and crispy as the traditional one, we recommend doing this too. Of course, if you don't have time to do that, that's OK. Just make sure you put the batter in the oven at room temp and not when it's cold.
That hot muffin tin is also incredibly key to accomplishing the delicious texture and flavour of traditional Yorkies. You want the oil to be sizzling when you pour your batter into the tins.
Keto Yorkshire Pudding Recipe
Nutritional Info (Per Pudding):
Calories: 70.6
Fat: 5.3g
Of which saturates: 0.9g
Carbohydrate: 3g
Of which sugar: 0.2g
Protein: 3.3g
What you need (ingredients):
- 2 eggs (British Free Range)
- 1 tablespoon or 15 grams of arrowroot powder
- 10 grams of almond flour
- 100 mls of dairy-free milk (coconut, almond, etc.)
- Large pinch of pink Himalayan salt
- 1 tablespoon Hunter and Gather Avocado Oil (tallow, ghee or coconut oil work too, but you'll probably taste the coconut, so it's up to you)
What you do (method):
- In a large jug, whisk together all of the above ingredients except the oil. Leave to sit for 30 minutes at room temperature or refrigerate for up to three days and set out at room temp as you prepare the tin the day you're ready to bake.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Once the oven is hot, pour 1/2 teaspoon of avocado oil into 6 cavities of a standard muffin tin. Place in the oven for 10 minutes to heat the oil thoroughly.
- Using an oven mitt, remove the tray from the oven and carefully divide the batter between the 6 cavities with oil in them. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
Disclaimer: All information provided on our website and within our articles is simply information, opinion, anecdotal thoughts and experiences to provide you with the tools to thrive.
It is not intended to treat or diagnose symptoms and is definitely not intended to be misconstrued for medical advice. We always advise you seek the advice of a trained professional when implementing any changes to your lifestyle and dietary habits.
We do however recommend seeking the services of a trained professional who questions the conventional wisdom to enable you to become the best version of yourself.
REFERENCES
[1] https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Yorkshire-Pudding
