Toad in the Hole – with onion gravy

Toad in the Hole is a traditional British classic dish made from plump, meaty sausages encased in light crispy batter and smothered in a delicious caramelised onion gravy.  Some people think the best part is the batter!

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Toad in the hole

I grew up eating toad in the hole, and it’s still one of my favourite meals. Crispy Yorkshire pudding batter, surrounding plump, meaty sausages smothered in caramelised onion gravy. A hearty plate of toad in the hole is comfort food at its finest.

For those of you who don’t know what a Yorkshire pudding is, it is a batter of egg, milk and flour, very similar to that used to make pancakes, and normally baked in muffin tins in the oven until it is puffed and golden. Yorkshire puddings originated in the days when money was scarce, and were normally served as a starter, so the family could fill up on those, and could therefore get by with a smaller helping of meat.

To make toad in the hole, the batter is poured over sausages that have been lightly browned in the oven, in a very hot pan. As the Yorkshire pudding batter hits the hot sausage oil, the batter immediately starts to sizzle and cook. After being baked in the oven for half an hour the batter has puffed up to encase the sausages, and is soft and chewy on the inside, with a lovely crispy exterior. Some people say the batter is the best bit 🙂

Origins of Toad in the Hole

Toad in the hole is a traditional British dish, dating back to the early 18th century. The first recorded recipe for Toad in the Hole was published in 1747 in a book The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, who called it ‘pigeon in a hole’.

By the 19th century, toad in the hole had evolved to use any type of left-over meat encased in batter and was popular with the labourers and thrifty middle-class as an economical way of feeding large families.

Today, however, Toad in the Hole is a classic British recipe, comprising plump, meaty sausages encased in a light and crispy Yorkshire pudding batter, smothered in rich caramelised onion gravy. It is best served accompanied by vegetables.

What’s not to love?

Olive or sunflower oil?

The smoke point of cooking oil is the point at which the oil begins to break down and starts to burn, which give the food an unpleasant taste.

For this reason I would recommend sunflower oil for browning the sausages.  Sunflower oil has a much higher smoke point than olive oil, and this recipe needs a high heat to ensure the Yorkshire pudding batter puffs up nicely. 

Ingredients for Toad in the Hole

You can get the full list of ingredients and instructions on how to make toad in the hole on the printable recipe card further down in the post.

This recipe is sufficient for 4 people, assuming each person will eat 3 sausages. You can use more or less sausages, depending on your family’s appetite.

Sausages

• 12 good quality, meaty Sausages – you could use either beef or pork sausages, but just make sure you get the best quality you can afford. You want sausages with quite a low fat content.
• If you want to make this dish vegetarian, you could use Quorn sausages instead.
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil (or canola oil) which is used for browning the sausages.

Yorkshire pudding batter

The batter for toad in the hole is exactly the same batter that you would use to make traditional Yorkshire puddings.

It uses ingredients in a 1:1:1 ratio for dry, egg and liquid ingredients, eg 1 cup flour, 1 cup lightly beaten egg, 1 cup milk.

Assuming that each egg weighs 2 ounces, you will need 4 eggs. If your eggs are on the small size you may need to use 5 eggs to get a full cup.

You can use either full-fat or semi-skimmed milk for this recipe.

For the flour you should use plain flour, not self-raising, and you don’t need to add any baking powder either. It sounds counter-intuitive, but for this recipe self-raising flour or baking powder will not make the Yorkshire pudding rise.

You can make a larger quantity if you like, just increase the ingredients, but keep to the 1:1:1 ratio.

Caramelised Onion Gravy

The onion gravy is made by sweating onions very slowly in a little cooking oil until they caramelise and release their sweetness. They are then turned into a gravy by the addition of stock thickened with a little flour.

How to make Toad in the Hole

You will need a baking dish large enough to hold your sausages in a single layer, but deep enough to take the batter mixture.  I use a metal baking dish that I picked up at Poundland – I find metal is much better than ceramic because of the way it holds and conducts the heat. You need a dish that will get really hot in the oven. Also, make sure your dish is deep enough to hold the Yorkshire pudding as it rises. You don’t want to be scraping over-flowed batter off the bottom of your oven.

Start by making the batter

• Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper.
• Mix in the lightly beaten egg with the milk and whisk into the flour using a balloon whisk. Whisk until all the lumps have been incorporated. The result should be a thin pouring batter with no lumps. 
• Let the batter rest for at least half-an-hour in the fridge.  Apparently, the longer it rests, the higher the batter will rise up when cooked. Don’t over do it though, half an hour will be ample time.

Brown the sausages

• While the batter is resting, preheat the oven to 225C / 450F. You need a hot oven so the batter rises well.
• Arrange the sausages in a baking tray with the sunflower oil.  Place the tray of sausages in the oven until they start to brown.    This should not take longer than 5 to 8 minutes. Any longer and the sausages will be over-cooked. Remember, the sausages are going to continue cooking in the yorkshire pudding batter.
• Once the sausages have browned slightly, open the oven door and quickly pour the batter over the sausages. If you can do this without removing the baking tray from the oven, so much the better. Otherwise remove the baking tray from the oven and quickly pour in the batter and put the tray back immediately.   Do this a quickly as possible, while the baking tray is hot. The batter should sizzle and start to rise as it hits the hot oil in the tray.
• The sausages will have released a little of their fat as they brown. This is perfectly fine. The sausage fat will just add extra flavour to the toad in the hole.
• Allow to bake for a further 30 minutes until the batter is well risen and golden. Resist the temptation to open the oven door for the first 20 minutes, or the batter may sink.

Make the caramelised onion gravy

• You can make the gravy whilst the toad in the hole is in the oven.
• Sweat the onions in a little sunflower oil until they start to break down and become golden.
• Take your time over this step – it will probably take about 10 minutes on a very low heat.
• Caramelising the onions like this brings out the sweetness of the onion and makes for a really tasty gravy.
• Once the onions have caramelised, mix the beef stock with the flour. If you have used a stock cube mixed with boiling water to make the stock, allow this to cool before adding the flour or you will end up with a lumpy mess. (Or just mix the flour to a thin paste with a little water before stirring into the stock).
• Stir well to ensure there are no lumps, then add to the onions. Add the worcestershire sauce, stir well and bring to the boil.
• Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook, stirring continuously until thick and glossy.
• Pour it into a gravy boat and serve alongside the toad in the hole.

Serve

• Serve a slice of toad in the hole on a plate and smothered in gravy. And don’t forget to make sure that everyone gets their fair share of the crispy batter!
• You can accompany toad in the hole with additional vegetables of your choice.

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Recipe – Toad in the Hole with onion gravy

If you made this recipe and enjoyed it, I’d love it if you could give me a star rating in the comments below. And if you’d like to get in touch, you can email me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you. And don’t forget to subscribe to my mailing list so you can grab yourself a copy of my FREE COOKBOOK!

If you’d like to continue browsing, just click on this link to all my recipes.