TOAD IN THE HOLE

This serves three or two hungry folk! Ideally the batter should be made the day before but it doesn’t suffer too much from being made at the time.

Ingredients
8 Pork Sausages
4 rashers streaky bacon halved lengthways
110g (4oz) Plain White Flour
300ml (½ pint) Milk
2 Small Eggs
8 long thin slices of cheese
½ tsp Salt
Gravy granules made up to 1 pint.

Method
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, then make a well in the centre and break in the eggs.
Mix in half the milk using a wooden spoon and work the mixture until it is smooth; then add the remaining milk. Season. Beat or whisk until fully combined and the surface is covered with tiny bubbles.
Allow to rest for 15 minutes and whisk again before use.
Preheat the oven to 230°C; 450°F: Gas 8
Fry the sausages and bacon in a pan to lightly colour them and remove excess fat.
Put the sausages and bacon to one side and place the fat in a small roasting tin or Yorkshire Pudding dish adding a little oil, if needed, to bring the amount of fat up to about 4 tbsp. Heat the fat until smoking hot then pour in the batter.
Add the sausages and place the strips of bacon on top with the cheese slices on top of the bacon.
Place into the hot oven and bake for about 5-10 minutes at 230°C; 450°F: Gas 8, then reduce to 200°C; 400°F: Gas 6 and bake 15 to 25 minutes or until the batter around the sausages has risen and is a deep golden brown.
Serve immediately or the pudding will deflate.

If you are like Richard and I you will want plenty of gravy to accompany this dish! Jo prefers it without. (Observant folk will notice the example in the picture doesn't have eight sausages and the bacon and cheese weren't laid out perfectly. I had not originally aimed to do it for a blog posting - the principal objective was to eat it!)