Popovers 2.0
Admittedly, baked goods have called me since early on. Once I was taught how to use the stove, my family enjoyed waking up to fresh popovers on Saturday morning. It was a simple recipe found in a Junior Cookbook, yet held all the magic of ingredients that reacted to the heat in a way that captured my young imagination. The chewy crispiness of the fluffy popovers yielding to the butter and jelly they were slathered with are what food memories are made of. Fresh baked popovers became a family breakfast favorite, and one way I was able to show my family how special they were to me. Nowadays, I bake them for my husband, Joshua, high and tall in a 6-cup popover pan, and use my high tech blender to blitz up the batter. A far cry from the hand crank egg beater I used when I was 9.
Popovers 2.0
If you plan on serving the popovers immediately, remove them from the oven, and stick the tip of a knife into the top of each, to release steam and help prevent sogginess. Slip them out of the pan, and serve.
Ingredients
4 large eggs, warmed in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes before cracking
1 1/2 cups milk, lukewarm
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (177g) unbleached AP Flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Position a rack on a lower shelf and no shelf immediately above, making sure the popovers have room to rise without hitting a rack. The top of the fully risen popovers should be about midway up the oven. What you don’t want is for the tops of the popping popovers
to be too close to the top of the oven, as they’ll burn. - Grease popover pan thoroughly, covering the area between the cups as well as the cups themselves. Make sure the oven is up to temperature before you begin to make the popover batter.
- Blend eggs, milk, and salt; add flour, blending until smooth; then add the melted butter at the end, blending until frothy.
- Pour the batter into the cups, filling them about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Make absolutely certain your oven is at 450°F. Place the pan on a lower shelf of the oven .
- Bake the popovers for 20 minutes without opening the oven door. Reduce the heat to 350°F (again without opening the door), and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until they’re a deep, golden brown. If the popovers seem to be browning too quickly, position an oven rack at the very top of the oven, and put a cookie sheet on it, to shield the popovers’ tops from direct heat.