Sparkle Kitchen: Popovers
In this week’s Martin and Sylvia: Saturdays! story, “A Hunting Morning”, Laura is visiting the Browns next door, and Martin and Sylvia are invited over for buttered popovers. Mr. and Mrs. Brown then decide to set up a ‘popover treasure hunt’ for the three children where they need to use their noses to find the tasty treats. When the hunt begins, however, the children are surprised to find they are not the only ones doing the hunting!
For the longest time I thought that you had to have a special pan to make popovers, so —not wanting to clutter up my kitchen with a one-trick pan — I simple never made them.
But, did you know that you can make popovers in a normal muffin tin?
It’s true! Popovers made in a muffin tin won’t reach the sky-high puffiness of those made in a proper popover pan, but they’re still plenty billowy to scoop up your favorite filling.
No matter what kind of pan you use, the key is the same—do not open the oven door during the cooking process. Popovers rise because of the steam created as liquid evaporates from the super light batter. Opening the oven door for even a moment lowers the oven temperature resulting in less steam and deflated popovers.
It’s so tempting just to peek in, but do yourself a favor—make sure your oven light bulb is working and keep your hands away from that oven door. When you have a piping hot, pillow of a popover in your hand at the end, I promise, it will be worth your patience!
Popovers
Ingredients
1 cup milk (at least 2%, but whole is better)
2 eggs
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup flour
a pinch of salt
Directions
Using a food processor if you have one (and a sturdy bowl and whisk if you don’t), combine the milk, eggs, and 1 tablespoon of the butter. Once those are mixed throughly, add the flour and salt and process until the batter is a little foamy.
Meanwhile, heat your oven to 450 degrees. No cheating here, make sure it’s fully pre-heated before you go any further.
When the oven is hot, pour the rest of the butter equally in to the wells in the muffin tin and put the whole thing in the oven for about 3 minutes.
Give the batter one last good pulse, then carefully pull the hot pan out and divide the batter among the wells. Put the pan back in the oven for 15 minutes, and do not open the oven door.
Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 15 minutes, again, without opening the oven.
When the popovers are fully puffed and sound hollow when you tap the top, run a butter knife around the edge of each one to get it to release from the pan.
Eat them while they're hot with extra butter or your favorite jam.
If you liked this recipe, here are others you might enjoy:
Not yet a subscriber? Try a free trial HERE.
About the Author
Meryl Carver-Allmond
The Sparkle Kitchen Series is created by Meryl Carver-Allmond.
Meryl lives in a hundred-year-old house near the prairie with her sweet husband, two preschoolers, one puppy, one gecko, and about ten chickens. While she's been writing since she could pick up a pen, in recent years she's discovered the joy of photography, too. She feels lucky to be able to combine those skills, along with a third passion — showing people that cooking for themselves can be healthy and fun — in her Sparkle Kitchen posts.
