Yorkshire pudding: a frugal quick bread to go with supper

Most people think of Yorkshire pudding as something to have with roast beef.  In our house, I make Yorkshire pudding to accompany a soup or salad supper.  I bake it in a pie plate, cut into wedges, and we eat it as a quick bread.  It's fast to throw together, a reasonable source of protein, and for our household with food sensitivities, I can modify the recipe and it still turns out great.  (I often replace dairy milk with soy milk, and wheat flour with rice flour.)

Here's my recipe:

2 Tablespoons butter, drippings or vegetable oil (I like butter, gives a delicious flavor to the crust)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour (I do this with whole grain flour and it turns out really yummy)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil (here I do use oil, as it blends with the other ingredients better than butter)

• Heat oven to 420 degrees F (395 if using a pyrex pie plate)
• Put the 2 Tablespoons butter (or other fat of your choosing) in pie dish and place in heated oven until melted -- takes 3 to 5 minutes. After it has melted, swirl around the pie plate.
• Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, using a hand mixer, beat together eggs, milk, flour, salt and 1 Tablespoon oil. Pour into pie plate on top of hot melted butter.  Bake until puffy and golden brown, about 25 minutes.  Let stand 2-3 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.

Do you know how Yorkshire pudding came to be?  In financially-challenged homes in England, a small joint of beef had to feed many.  Before the meat course was served, the family ate the Yorkshire pudding, flavored with drippings from the meat.  This helped to fill them up, so that the small amount of meat could feed the entire household.  An original frugal food.

And tonight our family is supping on "garbage" soup and Yorkshire pudding. "Garbage" soup is a story for another time.  Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.