Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
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Ingredients
4 tbsp sunflower oil or lard
3 large onions
8 Cumberland sausages (we used Butcher’s Choice)
a handful of fresh sage leaves
For the batter
125g plain flour
1⁄4 tsp fine sea salt
2 large eggs
175ml whole milk, mixed with 75ml cold water
For the cider gravy
25g butter
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
3 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp cider vinegar
300ml cider
300ml beef or chicken stock (made using 1 stock pot or cube)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
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Make the batter and gravy up to 24 hours ahead. Whisk the batter well before cooking.
Make the batter an hour or more before cooking. Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and add a grinding of black pepper. Make a well in the centre, break in the eggs and start to whisk together. Gradually add the milk and water mixture, whisking all the time, until you have a smooth batter. Cover the batter and put in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes before cooking, preferably at least an hour. Batter that is rested and cold will rise better in the oven.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 220°C, fan 200°C, gas 7. Add 3 tablespoons of oil or lard to a medium roasting tin (about 20cm x 30cm base measurements) and pop it in the oven for 5 minutes to heat up. Slice 11⁄2 onions thinly, and the remainder thickly, then set aside.
Get the gravy started: melt the butter and 1 tablespoon of oil (or lard) in a large pan, add the thinly sliced onions and cook for 2-3 minutes over a medium-high heat, stirring. Season, then cover the pan and cook gently for 10-15 minutes until very soft.
Meanwhile, add the sausages and thickly sliced onions to the hot roasting tin; cook for 8 minutes.
Returning to the gravy, increase the heat, sprinkle in the sugar and cook the onions for 5-6 minutes until starting to caramelise, stirring occasionally so that they don’t catch.
Remove the batter from the fridge and give it a whisk to re-combine. Remove the hot roasting tin from the oven, scatter in the sage leaves and immediately pour the batter into the tin – it should start to sizzle as it hits the hot fat. Return the tin to the oven as quickly as possible and cook for about 30 minutes until the batter is crisp and well risen. Avoid opening the oven door during cooking, as the batter could collapse.
To finish the gravy, stir the flour into the onions, followed by the cider vinegar. Gradually add the cider, followed by the stock. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the mustard just before serving with the hot toad in the hole.
Use a metal (or enamel-coated metal) baking tin if possible – a large, reasonably deep dish is best. Using a metal tin means the tin it will get hotter and the heat distribution will be more even. Mine is a rectangular enamel roaster, approx 31cmx25cm and 5cm deep.
Store any leftover Toad In The Hole in a lidded container in the fridge until required. (It will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge.) To reheat, simply place the cold Toad In The Hole on roasting tray in an oven heated to 220C (200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F) for 10-15 minutes or until piping hot all the way through.
If your batter still isn't rising well it could be that you haven't used enough oil. While you don't want your toad in the hole to be greasy, you need a certain amount of hot oil for the batter to rise.
Our answer. The batter in a toad in the hole should rise up but will be airy and crisp rather than spongy or cakey. The flour should be plain (all-purpose) flour and not self-raising. However it is most likely that the batter isn't quite cooking properly due to the dish.
Can I freeze this Toad in the Hole? Yes you can! This recipe can be frozen, but please remember to do the following; Freeze it as soon as it is cold enough.
The table for Toad in the Hole is about 15 inches across and 24 inches long. The playing surface slopes towards the players who stand behind a line 8 feet from the front of the board. In the centre of the table is a hole of about 2 inches in diameter through which the toads can fall.
Once removed from the oven, the toad in the hole will sink slightly due to the temperate change – I just recommend you check it is cooked and crispy on top throughout to know it is ready.
As for eggs, there's no limit to the amount we're advised to eat, and because they're a Slimming World Free Food, we can crack on and enjoy as many as we like!
Despite popular belief, there is no record of the dish ever being made with toad. The origin of the name is unclear, but it may refer to the way toads wait for their prey in their burrows, with their heads poking out, just as sausages peep through the batter.
Get a flexible silicone pan (loaf or shallow square both fine) and your toad in the hole will never stick. They're pretty cheap, and very much worth it. You should also be able to use less oil this way, just shake the sausages around to coat the insides before the batter goes in.
Usually in America, toad in the hole refers to an egg cooked in the hole cut out of a piece of bread. But in England, it's sausages cooked in what is essentially Yorkshire pudding. To me, the English version is more whimsical, perhaps because Mr. Toad is my favorite character in The Wind in the Willows?
Toads like garden soil amended with compost. Make sure whatever house you make does not have a bottom as they will want to burrow down a little and make the house their own. Toads need access to water, not deep water, but just enough to get a daily soak.
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Prep time: 30 mins
