Maple Bacon and Cauliflower Cheese Yorkshire Puddings

What do you do when you’re hungry and you only have random things in the fridge?

Mix them up to make filled yorkshire puddings, of course 🙂

We took our inspiration from the Great British Bake Off this week, and so I sat and pondered exactly what to put in some Yorkshire puddings – a family favourite for most of us – except for D, who doesn’t really like much of anything at the moment unless its biscuits (I was hoping my Yorkshires wouldn’t turn out too biscuity, so…)

We all like cauliflower cheese, and we all like bacon. So that’s what ended up going into our yorkshires. Here’s how we made them:

Ingredients

For the Yorkshire puddings
140g plain flour
a pinch of salt
4 eggs, beaten
200ml milk
a splash of water (because we only had whole milk – if you have semi skimmed you won’t need this)
2 tbsp sunflower oil

For the cauliflower cheese
1 small cauliflower, broken into florets and steamed for 8 minutes
40g butter
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
150ml milk
50g parmesan, finely grated
half an onion, chopped and sauteed
2 tbsp thyme leaves

For the maple bacon
12 rashers smoked streaky bacon
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp maple syrup

To make the Yorkshire puddings
1. Preheat the oven to 230°C/210°C/gas mark 6. Put a little of the sunflower oil in each hole of a 12 hole muffin tin, and put it in the oven to heat until the oven reaches temperature.
2. Sift the flour and salt together and put into a food processor.
3. Add the eggs, and pulse on a low speed until thoroughly mixed.
4. Slowly add the milk (and water) and continue to pulse until you achieve a smooth batter.
5. Carefully remove the tray and pour in the batter in even amounts. Bake for around 20-25 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Don’t open the oven door for at least 20 minutes!

To make the cauliflower cheese
1. Put the cauliflower on to steam.
2. Whilst the cauliflower is steaming, add the butter to a small high sided pan and wait for it to melt. Once melted, add the flour a spoonful at the time and stir until smooth.
3. Add the milk slowly, beating constantly. Continue to heat until the sauce thickens.
4. Remove from the heat and add the parmesan.
5. Place the cauliflower, sauteed onion, and cheese sauce into a food processor. Sprinkle the thyme over the top, season, then pulse until the cauliflower has broken into coarse pieces.

To make the maple bacon
1. Heat the oil, add the bacon and cook for a short while.
2. Pour over the maple syrup and stir to coat the bacon. Continue to heat until the maple syrup has reduced and the bacon is sticky. Leave to cool a little.

Take the yorkshire puddings, fill with the cauliflower cheese mix and top with a slice of streaky bacon: