Craving for Popovers

An obsession of mine ever since I visited Tyler Florence’s Wayfare Tavern was their famous popovers. Perfectly baked, crispy yet soft in the inside; it was quite buttery too. It was worth the visit just for popovers.

To get over my obsession, I decided to bake popovers. Also, I figured this would be a good recipe to try out on my new muffin pan and also my husband.

I decided to use the recipe from AllRecipes.com that I’ve been used to, except that I used my usual soymilk instead of real milk (I rarely have real milk in my refrigerator). However, I was not sure how to make it more buttery, so just added butter in the pan (as I’ve read in one of the reviews from Allrecipes.com) and also brushed it with butter after baking.

It did not occur to me to look for Tyler’s recipe since hey… it was early in the morning. I was lucky enough to be able to read a recipe.

I did remember the tip from my original pop-over post: "Hot pan, warm batter!". Not bad for 7 am.

Here’s my recipe (for this week) at least. I am sure that there will be some tweaking… and more baking!

Simple Popovers

Adapted from Popovers from AllRecipes.com

Makes 9-10 muffin sized popovers

 

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup soy milk (I used Soy Dream)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp of butter (plus 1 more Tbsp more for brushing, if desired)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Divide 1 Tbsp of butter evenly in the pan. Place muffin pan in the oven to preheat. Grease the muffin cups with the melted butter.
3. In a medium bowl, beat eggs slightly.
4. Microwave milk for about 2 minutes to warm it. Beat in flour, milk and salt until just smooth; being careful not to overbeat (The batter will be thin).
5. Fill muffin cups 1/2 full.
6. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes. Decrease oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 15 minutes more. Important: Do not peek. Immediately remove from cups and serve piping hot. Brush with melted butter, if desired.

Verdict

This recipe was pretty good. Even though this was not Wayfare Tavern’s, my husband enjoyed it and had two for breakfast and another two for dinner with his stew at dinner. With my picky eater, I consider that a success!

With this new pan, I may need to play with time a little bit. I’d like a darker golden brown look to it. With the muffin pan, I may need to increase the temp a bit to 425 degrees.

…and I got to get a pop-over pan!

…and try Tyler Florence’s recipe.

But first, I got to find it!

Popovers!

My husband cleaned our oven over the weekend, and I am dying to use it. Yesterday morning, I was in the mood for pop-overs and decided that it should be my first project with the clean oven.

I started out with the popover recipe in AllRecipes.com. I really did not want to use normal milk because I am watching my dairy intake, so I thought I would try a low calcium soy milk. I used Classic Soy Dream, which we always have in the refrigerator. Since I am starting to drink Almond Milk, I thought I would try baking it with Silk Almond Milk, but since that particular brand of soy milk had lower calcium, I thought I would try that for today. Maybe Almond milk next time.

I also do not have a popover pan (yet), so I had to use my muffin pan. I think this will work out nicely.

Finished Product: Warm Popovers

I remembered seeing popovers made in the Food Network, most likely "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" with Guy Fieri. I looked for the tips from that show. I wrote "Hot Pan, Warm Batter". I also wrote "definitely use a popover pan," but it is too late for that.

I also found that I did not have cooking spray, which I usually use when baking. As always, in my kitchen, we need to improvise again, and use melted butter. Should still do the trick, right?

Yummy with Marmalade and PB!

As I prepared the batter, I warmed the oven and popped the pan in with solid butter cubes. I figured that the oven will melt it for me. After a few minutes, I removed the pan and spread the melted butter on the sides, and popped it back in the oven. This may be a mistake, since the butter did brown a bit once the batter was ready.

The popovers came out good. Unlike my first attempt where I used rice milk, these popped beautifully. It looked a bit too brown, but they tasted great and not burnt at all. I think for next time, I may either reduce the cooking time, cooking temp, or maybe both?

My husband also loved the result. Being a self-proclaimed peanut butter-aholic, he filled his with peanut butter, while I filled mine with orange marmalade. That was so good, we even had one that was PB&J. Later in the day, I tried a savory version with cream cheese - it was equally good.

'Looking forward to the next version.