These vegan Yorkshire puddings are perfect with their golden, crispy crowns and an elusive ‘well’ ready to fill with gravy! They’ve gone through years of iterations before landing on the perfect recipe and method.
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So, what is a Yorkshire pudding?
If you’re British, you may already know this one...
Yorkshire puddings are a classic British side dish, originating from (you guessed it) Yorkshire. They’re basically made from pancake batter, but cooked in tins with fat, originally animal fat, but more commonly with vegetable oil these days.
They’re most often eaten as part of a roast dinner, which is how we always have them. In addition, they always feature on a Christmas dinner too.
We’ve seen some more creative uses of the batter over the years. Giant Yorkshires filled with a roast dinner, and even wraps made with the batter and filled with roast dinner ingredients and dipped in gravy!
Another classic British dish that utilises Yorkshire pudding batter is the oddly-named “toad in the hole”. It’s basically a giant vegan Yorkshire pudding with plant-based sausages inside it. If you like this recipe we bet you’ll like that one too! Try our Vegan Toad in the Hole.
Why this recipe works
- We practiced and practiced until they were just right. We always want vegan Yorkshire puddings with a roast dinner, so it was a labour of love to create a decent vegan version. There are many factors at play to get them to rise nicely, but completely worth persevering for.
- Everything from the oven temperature to the ingredient ratios, and whether you preheat the oil to how quickly you can work, play a part in creating the perfect vegan Yorkshire pudding. Following all of our advice perfectly should lead to exquisite Yorkies!
- There’s a reason why so many vegan Yorkshire pudding recipes lead to making something that looks more like a muffin than a Yorkshire pudding – it’s really difficult to get right! People struggle to make a good Yorkie using the traditional ingredients, so us vegans are just making it harder for ourselves.
- Resting time – it’s very important to rest these vegan Yorkshire puddings outside of the oven. If you don’t they will have a gooey middle, which is not how Yorkshire puddings should be.
- While these Yorkshires aren’t 100% replicas of a non-vegan version, they are the closest we’ve ever tasted. And we’ve tried a lot.
Pep Talk
- The catch: there’s no guarantee you’re going to get dream Yorkshires out of the oven the first time. You’ve got to practice in your own home, with your ingredients, your equipment and your oven – these variables (and even the temperature in your kitchen) can change the end results massively. But, fear not, this is the best starting point – just look at the photos, it is possible!
- Time for a little pep talk! Although it sounds like there’s a lot to think about, don’t be put off – you’ve got this. Just read this article thoroughly and you’ll be able to make a successful batch of vegan Yorkshire puddings!
🍽 Equipment needed
While this recipe needs to be followed to the letter, it doesn’t need fancy equipment. The main things you’ll need are: a hand whisk (or electric whisk), a metal muffin tin (not a Yorkshire pudding or popover tin), kitchen scales, a measuring jug (1 litre) and spoon measurers to make sure everything is exactly weighed out.
📋 Ingredient Tips
There are a few ingredients that we utilise in this recipe, which aren’t necessarily traditional, but replace non-vegan ingredients well. This is why we use them and some tips:
- Chickpea flour (also known as gram or garbanzo flour) helps to create a slightly lighter batter, as well as providing a slightly golden colour.
- Ground turmeric helps to create a slightly yellow, golden batter that would usually be achieved with egg yolks.
- Aquafaba is the egg replacement in this recipe. It’s the water that beans have been cooked in. You know, that kind of weird smelling liquid that gets poured down the drain when you open a tin of chickpeas? Don’t worry though, it doesn’t affect the flavour when you use it in cooking. Aquafaba isn’t just found in tins of chickpeas, though most references to it mention chickpeas. We’ve successfully made this recipe using aquafaba from tins of kidney beans and butter beans, so if you’re making our famous vegan fish pie, keep the aquafaba from the tin of butter beans!
- Apple cider vinegar – it helps the batter rise and activates the baking powder.
- Baking powder – also helps them to rise.
🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
These instructions are an overview of the vegan Yorkshire puddings recipe to go with the process images. These are to help show what the recipe should look like at each key stage.
1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 7 / 220c / 425f. Sieve the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir to combine.
2. Mix the aquafaba, water and apple cider vinegar in a large measuring jug.
3. Stir together the liquid ingredients and dry ingredients. Whisk with a hand or electric whisk until smooth.
4. Let the mixture rest for at least 15 minutes in the large measuring jug.
5. Pour the oil into the wells of the muffin tin. There should be 3mm of oil per well. Place in the oven until smoking hot – this will take about 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it.
6. Once the oil is smoking hot, work quickly (but safely) and pour the batter mix into each well of the tin. Don't overfill them. Leave a gap of around 5mm from the top of each well. Very quickly, put the filled tin back into the oven. Bake for 15 minutes.
Turn the oven temperature down to gas mark 5 / 190c / 375f and leave in for another 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow them to rest for a further 30 minutes. This will allow the middle to firm up!
Use a spoon to carefully remove them from the tin. Serve with a roast dinner. You can re-heat them in the oven or let the gravy heat them up on your plate!
Check out this video for even more help to make this recipe...
👩🍳 Expert Tips
Here’s the crucial information that’ll help you become a vegan Yorkshire pudding master:
- Pre-heat the oven. Turn it on when you start making the recipe and let it come fully up to temperature while you get the batter mix ready. It should be on gas mark 7 / 200c / 425f.
- Preheat the oil. It has to be smoking hot, so pour it into the muffin tin and get it into the pre-heated oven as quickly (and carefully!) as possible.
- Rest the batter. Transfer the mix into a jug so that it’s easier to pour later. Rest it for a minimum of 15 minutes, but you could even leave it overnight. If you leave it overnight, be sure to cover it and keep it in the fridge, then bring it up to room temperature before using it.
- If you don’t have a tin of chickpeas or other tinned beans, you can make these vegan Yorkshire puddings with Oggs aquafaba. Oggs sell aquafaba in cartons, but it’s often more expensive than buying a tin of beans.
- Variations – surprisingly, Yorkshires are sometimes eaten as a dessert with jam or other sweet fillings. This was apparently the original way to serve them! We haven’t actually tried them sweet but it does sound initriguing.
- Work fast (but be careful!). The faster you can pour the batter into the tin and get it back in the oven, the better your chance of success. The amount of batter to pour into each well of your tin will come with practice, there should be a gap of about 5mm from the top of each well. Once you’ve made them a couple of times you should be able to tell by eye where to pour to and have them in the oven within a minute.
What not to do
- Don’t overfill the wells of the tin, because then the oil will bubble over the sides, meaning there won’t be enough left to weigh down the middle of the Yorkshires. We know from experience!
- Don't use the batter straight from refrigerator, if it's been in there overnight. Make sure the batter is room temperature, or even a little bit warm. The oil needs to stay as hot as possible, to start cooking the batter straight away.
- Don't scrimp on the oil. We know oil isn’t generally healthy in large quantities, but there’s no way to get the “well” (or dip, or hole – whatever you call that bit in the middle) without it. You need a good few millimetres of oil in each well of the muffin tin. The oil *should* pool in the batter and weigh down the centre of your vegan Yorkshire puddings, leaving the sides to rise and crisp up.
- Don’t try to get them out of the tin straight away – we know it’s tempting to rip one straight out and dunk it in gravy to toast your victory, but hold off. If you give them 15 minutes (or longer) to sit on the side, the middle of the pudding will continue to cook and, more importantly, set. In addition, they’ll be easier to get out of the tin. Otherwise the middle will be soft and gooey, which is not how they should be.
- Don’t use a Yorkshire pudding or popover tin – they’re just not the right shape and they won’t work. Use a standard metal muffin or cupcake tin. It’s important that it’s metal because it distributes the heat evenly and has the structural integrity to maintain its shape during cooking.
💭 FAQs
Yes, we recommend these vegan Yorkshire puddings for freezing. They keep well in the freezer, and we always have a batch ready in there. Reheat them in the oven on gas mark 5 from frozen, for 10 minutes.
Not traditionally, but as with most things, it’s possible to create a vegan version with a little bit of know-how. And, in this case, a painful amount of recipe development (on our part)!
Typically, Yorkshire pudding batter is made with milk and eggs. You actually don’t need milk to make Yorkshires (not even non-dairy milk), and eggs are completely unnecessary when you have the magic of aquafaba on your side.
The key to getting them to rise is a combination of a few things. Baking powder is essential, along with the apple cider vinegar which activates the baking powder. Additionally, the temperature of the oil, as well as the amount, is key for weighing down the middle so that the edges can rise up around it.
Milk isn’t always used in traditional Yorkshire puddings, with a lot of recipes calling for water instead. So, you don’t even need to worry about which non-dairy milk is the best to use. We can confirm: water is just fine. So that’s that checked off – this is a dairy free Yorkshire pudding recipe too!
Aquafaba is the liquid found in tins of chickpeas, butter beans, kidney beans and any other bean. It acts a lot like egg whites, you can whip it up to create an airy structure in the batter. This is the exact reason we use it in our vegan Yorkshire pudding recipe – it also helps the batter rise.
A great way of getting aquafaba is to buy dried beans and cook them yourself in boiling water. Remember: aquafaba is the water that beans are cooked in – that includes the water you cook them in at home! Buying them dried (and in bulk) is the cheapest way to buy beans, and uses less packaging too.
It’s also great for making vegan meringues, marshmallows, chocolate mousse, fudge, ice cream and even hummus or quiche!
🍛 More recipes to try
If you’re interested in even more roast dinner recipes, check out our guide that features over 30 ideas. And if you're reading this around the Holidays, check out our 79+ Vegan Christmas Dinner ideas.
Did you make this recipe? Leave a review and a rating below, or tag us in your photos on Instagram! Alternatively, bookmark it in your browser or save to Pinterest for later.
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📖 Recipe
Best Ever Vegan Yorkshire Puddings
Ingredients
- 100 g plain flour
- 100 g chickpea flour a.k.a. gram or garbanzo flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 0.5 tsp ground turmeric optional but recommended
- 10 tbsp aquafaba
- 450 ml water
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 240 ml Vegetable oil or sunflower oil, roughly 1.5 tbsp oil in each muffin well in the tin.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 7 / 220c / 425f now. If you're going to rest the batter for several hours or even overnight, move straight to step 2 – you can heat your oven when you're ready to bake.
- Sieve the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and give them a good stir.100 g plain flour, 100 g chickpea flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 0.5 tsp salt, 0.5 tsp ground turmeric
- In a large measuring jug, combine the aquafaba, water and apple cider vinegar.10 tbsp aquafaba, 450 ml water, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk well with a hand or electric whisk.
- Transfer the combined mixture back to the measuring jug and rest for at least 15 minutes.
- While the batter rests, add the oil to the wells of the muffin tin. There should be around 3mm of oil per well – for our muffin tin, that's 1.5 tbsp of oil.240 ml Vegetable oil
- Put the muffin tin in the oven until the oil is smoking hot – this may take around 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it.
- Once you have smoking hot oil, work quickly (but safely) to pour the batter into the tin. Remove the tin from the oven and, well by well, pour the batter mix from your measuring jug into the tin. Don't overfill it – you should leave a gap of around 5mm from the top, otherwise the oil is likely to spill out. If you have any leftover batter, just save it for another batch of Yorkshires or make some pancakes!
- As soon as possible, put the filled tin back into the oven. Leave the Yorkshire puddings to bake for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, turn the oven temperature down to gas mark 5 / 190c / 375f and leave in the oven for another 15 minutes.
- Take the tin out of the oven and leave to rest on the side for a further 15-30 minutes. The centre of the Yorkshires may be a bit gooey, but resting will allow them to firm up. This is really important.
- Once rested, use a spoon to carefully remove them from the tin. Serve with a roast dinner. You can re-heat them in the oven or let the gravy heat them up on your plate!
Notes
- For gluten free Yorkshire puddings, double the chickpea flour. There will be a slight chickpea flavour.
- Turmeric is optional, but it helps to create the yellow colour that Yorkshires typically have.
- Aquafaba is the water that beans are cooked in (found in tins of chickpeas) – you can read more about this further up in the post.
- Resting the batter for 15 minutes will be fine, but if you have the time you can rest for a few hours or even overnight. If resting overnight, simply cover and put in the fridge, then bring back up to room temperature before using.
- You can, optionally, put your tin on top of a hob/burner and turn it on a medium-high heat to keep the oil hot while pouring the batter into the tin.
- They freeze really well and can be heated in the oven straight from frozen for 10-15 minutes. So there's nothing stopping you from making a big batch and heating up for an easy Sunday roast!
Laura
I have tried making these twice and followed the instructions exactly, but they still stay really gooey in the middle, even after resting. I have tried leaving them in the oven for longer but it doesn’t seem to work.
Jess Saunders
Hi Laura, sorry to hear that these haven't been working out for you! Have you taken a look at all of the helpful trouble shooting information in the article above? My first instinct would be to try pouring less batter into each muffin tin. Hopefully with practice they'll work out for you! Jess 💚
Barbara
Have tried many vegan Yorkshire Pud recipes, yours at present
are the best so far!!
Jess Saunders
So glad to hear this Barbara, thanks so much for letting us know! Jess 💚
Jacqueline H
I have tried this recipe twice, followed it to the letter and failed both times. I am not sure what I am doing wrong as my normal Yorkshire puddings turn out really well. ☹️
Simon Pitts
Hi, I've been looking for a good vegan Yorkshire Pudding recipe and will definitely be giving this a try. Can I ask if just using all purpose flour instead of chickpea flour would work, and in my old traditional version I used milk, not water. Would this recipe work with soya or oat milk, or is there a reason it has to be water? Thanks
Jess Saunders
Hey Simon, great questions. We have tried all of the options – just all purpose flour and with different types of plant milks and none of the results are as good than with using the two types of flour and water. The reason for using water is that the milk makes the batter too heavy so when baked there's no well in the middle. Hope you love this recipe, please do let us know how you get on! Jess 😊
Alexandria Kling
I have just found your recipe,but my problem is that I need to reduce the carbs:Do you think that I could remove the plain flour and maybe reduce the chick pea flour with soya and maybe coconut flour,or do I still need a degree of plain and chickpea flour for the whole thing to work ?; Your recipe does sound very good ,and I imagine stabile enough to add other tastes either sweet or savoury.Thankyou
Jess Saunders
Hi Alexandria, good questions! I would say that the quantities of the flours in this recipe need to be exact, and the ratio of chickpea flour and plain flour shouldn't be changed to get a good outcome. It is possible to just make it using chickpea flour but we wouldn't recommend the other flours unfortunately. If you do try making them with coconut flour or soya, please let us know what happens as it sounds like it could be a cool experiment. Email us anytime on [email protected] Jess 😊
Dusty
These are incredible. They're like crispy, savory donuts with a puddingy soft inside. I'm obsessed.
Jess Saunders
We're so glad that you like them Dusty! Thanks so much for leaving this review 💚
Claire
Woohoo...Finally a vegan Yorkshire recipe that works!!! Follow every step to the letter and you’ll get the most perfect looking and tasty puds!!
Ann Wheatcroft
Loved the texture And flavour. Was prepared to be disappointed,again. But ,no they were perfect.
Jess Saunders
Thanks so much for the review Ann, so glad that these Yorkies worked out so well for you! Jess x
Sharon S
Best vegan Yorkshire recipe ever, we now have several in the freezer (yes they freeze) ready to eat with everything.
T-Nasty
Love this recipe. My heart has always sunk when I’ve tried vegan Yorkies in the past, as what used to be a roast dinner highlight in my dark carnivorous days became a constant disappointment when I chose vegan. Always hopeful, always crestfallen.
I have used this recipe four times now, and they have turned out amazingly well every time, but better each time too. I can’t thank you enough!
Next time it’s Toad in the Hole. I’ll let you know how that goes 🙂
Shadiya & Elliot
Finally we've found a recipe that actually look and taste like Yorkshire puddings! Great recipe! Thanks guys!
Shadiya & Elliot @plantsmywifeandi
Leah
I've tried loads of recipes for vegan yorkies before and they've always come out rock hard.
This recipe was brilliant, by far the best ones I've made.
I cannot eat a roast dinner without them.
Jen
Could you create a vegan recipe for sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream please?
Vegan Punks
We love the sound of that! We'll add it to the list 🙂 Dan x
Meredith
There are some things out there that are extremely hard to veganize, like Yorkshire Pudding, and the Vegan Punks nailed it! I love their detailed tips and enthusiastic pep talks. Give this recipe a try - it really comes together quickly and takes very few ingredients. I look forward to making it again!
Vegan Punks
Thanks so much for trying the recipe and leaving us a review! Glad it went well for you – also super pleased that the tips helped. It took us quite a while to get these right, so we wanted to document everything that helped get there 🙂 Dan x
JP
These are easily the best Vegan Yorkies I have tasted. Have had vegan Yorkshire puds before in nice pubs/restaurants but always felt disappointed as they were"heavy/stogy' these however are light and delicious.
Vegan Punks
What lovely feedback – thanks so much! Dan x
Gill
Would it work with just 100g gluten free flour? (Halving the recipe as it's for one person. They can't have legumes or gluten)
Vegan Punks
We haven't made it with only gluten free flour, as we found that the chickpea flour was better for the Yorkshires, when making them gluten-free. However, we think it will work with only gluten free flour, but they may not look like perfect Yorkshires, and may not get the dip in the middle. As we haven't tried it with just gluten-free flour we wouldn't be able to say whether it would work or not for sure but we would love to know how it turns out!
Kevin
WOW!! This recipe really works and tastes GREAT, I'v had Vegan Yorkies on several occasions , but they are usually stogy, these however are light and look so good when plated up.
Vegan Punks
Thanks Kevin! Vegan Yorkshire puddings are definitely a tricky one to get right, so we're overjoyed when people like the recipe. Dan x
S Miller
Made some Yorkshires last night for an impromptu roast dinner and we loved them. We've tried making vegan Yorkshire puddings using a lot of different recipes and this is easily the best.
Vegan Punks
So pleased that you liked the recipe! And we really appreciate you leaving us a review. Dan x