Old Fashioned Popovers

These were the signature item at my bakery in Portland, Maine. I had never heard of a popover, much less made one, and by the end of my stint at Cambridge Coffee House I had probably made over 2,000. Maybe more, I don’t even want to know. What I love about popovers is that they are so versatile. You have serve them with butter and jam as a brunch side dish; you can serve them with garlic and herb butter for a dinner side dish. We used to bake them, cut them in half, and serve with eggs and cheese for a breakfast sandwich alternative. The options are as endless as your creativity.

The dough is simply eggs, butter, milk, and a pinch of salt. Similar to pancake batter minus the rising ingredient (baking powder). In a perfect world you would make the batter, let it sit overnight, and bring it to room temperature the next morning. I know that’s a lot to ask. If overnight prep isn’t your jam, make the day of with the ingredients as room temperature as possible. This helps get those suckers in the air so that you have overflowing popovers, and not mushy little wishing wells.

Old Fashioned Popovers
Makes: 12 popovers
Prep Time: overnight or 10 minutes with room temp ingredients
Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients- ALL ROOM TEMPERATURE: 
1½ cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1½ cups 2% milk
2 tsp salt

½ cup butter, for garnish
strawberry jam, optional

Directions:
1. Whisk the eggs, milk, and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. Sift the flour into the milk and eggs and whisk until smooth. If you are making the batter the night before, bring to room temperature the next morning and give a good stir to reincorporate all of the ingredients.
3. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the popover pan in the oven while the oven preheats, so that it is nice and hot by the time the oven is preheated.
4. Carefully remove the popover pan from the oven. Spray each of the containers well with cooking spray. Fill each of the containers halfway full with popover batter.
5. Bake the popovers for 15 minutes. Do NOT open the oven while they bake!! After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 degrees. Remove the popovers after 15 additional minutes and carefully remove each from their container. Serve hot with butter and jam.