Toad in the hole.

This image shows a cooked Toad in the Hole. I hope you will notice there isn’t an actual toad visible.

Like all the recipes I am including in this section this is a cheap but cheerful family meal.  It is fairly easy to make and cooks in about 40 minutes in a hot oven. I am not sure this dish will freeze well.

The hole part of the dish is made from a batter mix, this will also make Yorkshire pudding, but we’ll talk about that another time.

Ingredients for Toad in the Hole.

1 pack of six of the best sausages you can afford. Pork or Beef sausages work well in this dish or you could try Venison sausages if you wish. If you use vegetarian sausage I would think they would cook in less time. I’ve not tried that.

I don’t use a recipe or book for this so everything is done by eye, just like my Gran did when she made this.

4 to 6 ounce of flour

Pinch of salt

two medium eggs

half a pint of milk

Spoonful of sunflower oil

1 pack of 6 good quality sausuages

Make the batter in the morning and let it stand in the fridge until you are ready to use it. This helps make a better batter.

Use a big mixing bowl and pour in enough self raising flour to cover the centre of the bottom of the dish and make a little hill. Add pinch of salt.

Turn your hill of flour into a volcano crater.

Crack in two medium eggs. Use a balloon whisk to begin to mix the eggs with the flour you can do it quite fast once you’ve started it off. Take it steady at first or your flour will make a mess. When you have a medium kind of pasty mix add about half a pint of milk in two or three doses. You can use full cream or half it doesn’t make much difference. Whisk and beat this mixture for about three minutes until you have something that resembles a good milkshake. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put it in the fridge to rest.

Have a lovely day until you are ready to cook.

Put your oven on 220 Centigrade in a fan oven. Gas Mark  8 Set your shelf to the middle one. Get out medium sized cooking dish or tin. (If you use tin your Toad in the Hole will cook quicker)

While you wait for the oven to get to temperature unwrap your sausages, cut the links if they are linked and give them a bodge with a fork.

Once your oven is up to temperature pour about a dessert spoonful of vegetable oil in the bottom of your cooking tin and set it in the oven to get hot.

When the oil is hot take the dish out and put your sausages in spacing them out evenly. Set the dish in the oven for about 5 minutes so the sausages have a chance to begin cooking for about 5 minutes.

While the sausages are beginning to cook take you batter mix out of the fridge and give it another whisk.

Take your dish of sausages out of the oven and carefully pour the batter mix around the sausages. Take care because the oil should be hot enough to spit. This is important as the batter will end up soggy if the oil isn’t hot enough.

Put your dish back in the oven and let the Toad in the Hole cook for about twenty five minutes.

Check your dish. Don’t be astonished to see the batter rising quite dramatically. My boys always liked that bit. If your batter is still flat turn the oven up a bit more.

Leave the Toad in the Hole to cook until you are happy this dish is done. You will know this dish is cooked when the sausages are brown and so is most of the batter mix. You will still have some paleness around the sausages aim for a bit less than in the picture above. I prefer the batter that way, but don’t cook until everything is all brown or the dish will be burned.

This is one of those dishes that the cooking speed of your oven controls the timing. I know that sounds odd but some ovens are faster than others.

Take out of the oven when ready and serve immediately. I usually cut this up into squares and give adults two sausages and a big chunk of the cooked batter. If you serve this with baked beans children will enjoy it, or you could make onion gravy and serve it with the toad in the hole and some mixed veggies.

I do hope you enjoy it if you try this recipe.

Thanks for reading.

Daisy Banks

“Toad in the hole” by Robert Gibert – Photograph taken by Robert Gibert using Canon EOS 300D camera. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toad_in_the_hole.jpg#/media/File:Toad_in_the_hole.jpg