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Toad in the Hole
The batter must hit smoking-hot fat around already-browned sausages — that is the whole secret to the rise
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- Pork sausages — 8 (600 g)
- Beef dripping or neutral oil — 40 g
- Plain flour — 140 g
- Free-range eggs — 4
- Whole milk — 200 ml
- English mustard powder — 3 g
- Thyme leaves — 2 g
- Shallots — 300 g, halved lengthways
- Unsalted butter — 20 g
- Plain flour — 15 g (gravy)
- Red wine — 100 ml
- Beef stock — 400 ml
- Redcurrant jelly — 10 g
- Fine sea salt — 7 g
Method
- Batter: whisk 140 g flour, eggs, milk, mustard powder and 2 g salt smooth; rest 1 hour minimum at room temperature.
- Heat oven to 220°C. Brown sausages in half the dripping in a 25 x 30 cm metal dish on the hob, 6–8 minutes; remove.
- Gravy: caramelise shallots in butter over medium heat, cut-side down, 10 minutes; dust with 15 g flour, deglaze with wine, add stock and jelly, simmer 10 minutes to coating. Season.
- Add remaining dripping to the dish; heat in the oven 5 minutes until smoking.
- Working fast: sausages back in, batter poured around (it must sizzle violently), thyme scattered.
- Bake 25–28 minutes without opening the door, until risen, crisp and deeply golden.