I THINK SUNDAY MORNINGS were meant for “popovers.” Popovers are buttery, eggy, deliciously-light pastries which rise to the heavens as they bake in the oven. They are fun to tear apart, and then top with honey or jam. Make the batter in a blender, as I do, and you can have these puffs of perfection in no time at all:
Perfect Popovers
Ingredients for 6 pastries
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
3 Large eggs
3 Tbsp melted butter
Special Equipment – an electric blender; a baking sheet; 6 six-ounce custard cups, either buttered or sprayed with vegetable-spray
1. Place oven rack on the lower-third position; preheat oven to 425F. Pour all ingredients into the jar of an electric mixer, and blend on high speed for 15 seconds. If flour sticks to the sides of the jar, scrape it down with a rubber spatula. Then blend for another 5 seconds or so.
2. Arrange six custard cups on a baking sheet. I covered my baking sheet with aluminum foil. Why? Because I’m embarrassed to show you the condition of my baking sheets.
Fill the custard cups 2/3-full with batter.
3. Bake in the preheated 425F oven for 40 minutes.
Ah, this is what I call popover-perfection. It is the eggs in the batter which cause the pastries to rise. If you are serving guests, be sure to present the puffs at once. Your guests will have only nice things to say about you.
This morning, I enjoyed piping-hot popovers with dollops of strawberry jam.
I also enjoyed them with raw, local honey. Delicious, yes, but if you look carefully at the photo above, you’ll notice the honey ran down my hand. What you can’t see is the honey which eventually ran under my sleeve. Think I’ll stick with strawberry jam.
Now, I insist you try these popovers. They are easy to make, even on a moment’s notice.
Don’t miss anything at A Garden for the House…sign up for Kevin’s weekly newsletter.
Related Posts:
English Muffins
English Cream Scones
Greek-style Yogurt
I had no idea that popovers were so easy to make. And I’m not waiting until Sunday to try them!
Alan – Right! No need to wait for the weekend. For the sake of scientific research, I was forced to eat all of the popovers I made this morning. Yes, all six of them. So now I have a second batch in the oven, which will be shared.
I’m going to try this recipe. I have some beautiful pop-over pans, but I’ve made flops on 4 batches. I think it was because I was trying to use my regular whole wheat flour. After my last failure, I drove to the store and made a new batch right away. They popped! Your recipe looks easier, so I’ll give it a shot with the regular flour.
Christina – I hope you’ll try this version and then report back to me. I’ve found the custard cups enable the popovers to rise to the heavens. And the timing — 40 minutes — produces a golden color, a crust which is pleasant to the tooth, and an interior which is soft, but perfectly done.
Your fingernails certainly don’t look like a gardener.
I tried your cinnamon roles last weekend. They were FABULOUS! This weekend I was going to make your English muffins, but not I guess it will be popovers instead.
Debbie – Glad to hear you liked the cinnamon rolls. Dreamy, yes? If you make the popovers, let me know how they turn out for you.
Now, as for my fingernails…normally they are caked with soil. But for photographic purposes, I’ve learned to clean them before cooking!
Kevin treated me to a plate of these piping hot straight from the oven- too delicious to describe and do them the justice they deserve!!! Crispy and crusty on the outside, soft and tender on the inside…. golden apricot jam to go with them- absolutely made my day!!! Thank you my friend!!!!
Thanks for the inspiration. Just made these for brunch: whipped cream cheese and raspberry jam on one side; butter and honey on the other. Completely wonderful. Rounded out with a few strips of crisp bacon and fresh pineapple and blackberries. We are happy.
Just love your posts. You write like you are my best friend!
I know I write this often, but, you honestly have the BEST recipes. I had totally forgotten about my mom and grandmother making these when I was a child. Yay! I’m going to make these now
Brenda Johnson – So glad you liked them. Thanks for taste-testing!
medinalakegirl – Thanks for letting me know that you tried — and liked — the recipe. Whipped cream cheese, raspberry jam, butter and honey — four of my favorite things.
Anne Swift – That is one of the nicest comments (compliments?) I’ve ever received.
Valerie C. – Sooo glad you like my work. And if you make the popovers, I hope you’ll let me know how they turn out for you.
Everyone’s baking sheets are in the same condition. It’s what you do with those baking sheets that counts and those popovers look so delicious and sound so easy! Great, great newsletter. Always look forward to it.
oh i had no idea they were this easy either. or that you could do it with custard cups!
i will be making these tonight! and i MAY share….depends on the first one….
thanks for the recipe
Thanks for the reminder of how easy popovers are to make. I adore them but don’t make them very often, maybe because they’re so good, I eat too many and have to go take a nap and sleep them off.
There was a (now defunct) huge and very popular seafood restaurant in Boston that used to serve gigantic ones at dinner, and even mass produced the way they must have done, they were still delicious. (Not as good as mine, or yours, certainly.)
They’re so elegant, I think people probably think they’re really hard to make, when they’re actually a lot easier than biscuits of any kind.
I guess you don’t need to pre-heat the custard cups like you do to make popovers with roast beef?
Molly – Good to know that others have horribly-stained baking sheets, too.
Susan – Yes, they are that easy! And you don’t have to share. I won’t tell.
Jane – Agreed. Popovers are dangerously easy to make!
Jo – For these popovers, the custard cups are not pre-heated. But they still develop of marvelous crust.
Bonjour Kevin,
What a great idea to mix the ingredients in the blender and using custard cups; I’m going to use your method from now on, it’s much easier than mixing by hand. Company is arriving from Albany tomorrow so I’m treating them to popovers a la Kevin : )
You made me laugh at your comment about lining the baking sheet with foil. Visiting your site is so much fun, I always leave with a smile on my face. You probably don’t realize how much happiness your are spreading, you are a gem and you are much appreciated.
I have just scientifically determined that my ancient Pyrex ramekins have a 6oz capacity.
All systems are go for Popover desserts this evening! I even have some exotic jam on hand.
Thanks for all of your inspirations, Kevin!
Your popovers are beautiful. I’d like to share two more popover hints I’ve picked up over the years: increase the pop by having your milk and eggs at room temperature (microwave for milk and warm bowl of water for eggs speeds up the process of going from refrigerator to room temp) and grease and flour your cups. The flour is supposed to give the batter better purchase when climbing up the sides. I use the baking spray that has the powder in it because it does a better job than greasing and flouring the old fashioned way.
Thanks again for this blog, Kevin. It’s the only one I read, and I love it!
I forgot one more hint: as soon as the popovers come out of the oven, stick a sharp knife into each to let the steam escape and keep your popovers from caving.
Timely post! I had last minute guests tonight and as I scrambled to figure out how I could serve leftover chicken to them without it looking weird, I decided to try making these pop-overs and creaming the chicken. They were PERFECT for this purpose!!! I tried to make them a little more healthy by substituting 1/2 whole grain spelt flour and they were still awesome (I can only imagine how good they are with all wheat flower). Thank you so much!!!
Bonjour Oriane – So glad you like this crazy place! Hope the popovers turned out well for you.
Beverly – Popovers make excellent desserts! While toying with the recipe (which meant making batch after batch) I enjoyed them for breakfast…lunch…dinner…and in-between-meal snacks. Let me know how they turn out for you.
Dale Gasque – Great tips — thanks. I haven’t had trouble with the popovers sticking to the custard cups, but the flour/vegetable baking-spray seems like good insurance.
Rachel – Creamed chicken and popovers for dinner…who could complain? So glad the recipe came in handy for you at your moment of need!
I made these last evening and they turned out to be magnificent!
I had the oven already hot from making a homemade pizza for dinner. Pizza came out and Popovers went in. It was a thrill to see the height of them! We had 4 kinds of jam on hand plus local honey to experiment. I loved them all.
I used a hand mixer to make the batter, with good results. (My blender was packed away.)
Some of them fell right out of the buttered ramekins onto our plates, a few stuck a little bit, all parts devoured!
Beverly – I’m so glad you tried — and liked — the popovers. They are skyscrapers of deliciousness.
So you spread honey on a hot popover and it ran everywhere – hello????? Put the honey in a dipping dish, dip the popover therein and eat it quickly! This method also works for hot biscuits and maple syrup
I have a gluten intolerance & use only gluten-free flour, mixes, etc. I also use soy milk (Silk). Can these be substituted for the reg. flour & milk & still achieve the same results? Thank you.
Terry A Leach – I have not tried these popovers with GF flour and soy milk, but I suspect they could be made that way. Whether the results would be as good, I do not know. But it is certainly worth a shot. My partner is gluten-intolerant, and I’d like for him to be able to sample these pastries, too.
Thank you for your reply. I’m going to give it a try & see how they turn out. So far, GF foods aren’t that bad, so I hope these turn out well. You can’t fail if you don’t try! I’ll post on how they turned out.
Important question: Can you substitute soy milk? I hope for a quick answer because I can hardly wait to try these.
Thanks!
Ooops, just read your comment above dealing with my question. Guess I’ll go get some regular milk
I grew up eating popovers, and although my mom never had a “proper” popover pan (she used a muffin pan, and they weren’t very popped usually), I loved ‘em. And still do! I think popovers are one of the things that brought my boyfriend and I together ~~ until him, I’d never met anyone who even knew what one was!
Thanks to you, Kevin, I’m no longer intimidated by the popovers. Just made them this morning. They came out delicious even though I did not have custard cups and baked them in the muffin pan. There is just enough batter to fill the regular muffin pan. I also shortened the time to 35 minutes. My husband loved it so I guess I’ll be making them often.
Yum….
I tried these today. They popped nicely even though I had to use one of those extra large muffin pans and it was a dark one. I should have known to cut the temp a bit since I was using a terrible dark pan, so alas, they were overcooked. I had a really hard time getting them out of the pan. I buttered and floured the pan. Do you think the reason they stuck was because they were too browned. My family swears they will be happy for me to keep testing and the tops were so tasty with some peach preserves I made last summer!
Thanks for all you do with this site, Kevin. It is beautiful, and you are so polite to answer your posts.
Thanks Kevin, they are in the oven. My son Daniel insisted on grating parmesan cheese and adding it, so we added it to two of them and will see how it comes out. And I’ve always wanted to know how to make cinnamon rolls, so that’s for tomorrow morning, thanks to everyone discussing them above… can’t wait!
i don’t even remember how i got on to this site but WOW what a sight for a hungry tummy -such a simple presentation yet such an effect – what makes it so much more is that you make it look sooo simple – call me lazy or ( a tenderfoot) but i tend to collect recipes but only actually use the easy ones. thank you.
Hi Kevin! I baked these popovers for my family this morning and they’re still raving about them. My husband says this is a keeper recipe! (I have 2 boys, aged 10 & 19) incredibly simple recipe & yum!
Kevin,
I LOVE seeing you in my inbox! You are so delightful to listen to, and Yes, I did say listen.
The way you write, it feels as if you are right in the room talking to me. I am a breadlover as well, and will be trying your Pain de Mie (as soon as my pan comes from Amazon!), and your popovers. The pictures are wonderful. Thanks for spreading your light.
New reader and lover of your site. The popovers and Pain de Mie are also on my want to bake list among many other recipes I’ve enjoyed reading. They sure make your salivary glands go crazy. Just in time for the holidays. So much to read and view and dream what can I make next. Best wishes to you during the upcoming holidays and also to the other readers.
Hi. Yes I noticed the honey running down your hand, but here’s a tip you probably already know…instead of using the runny honey, try the spun or sugared honey. It is lovely and not nearly runny. : )
keep those recipes coming..I am going to make the popovers today. This Yank is going to feed them to my Brit hubby here in Jolly Old England. Tata for now luvie.
Toni Kitchen
This is a great little place I can’t believe that I didn’t find it
before.
Easy to make only two popovers. Everything is easily divided by 3.
Even easier if you melt the butter in the custard cups and pour it into the blender.
Kevin, have you ever substituted the milk in this recipe with the whey left over from draining the Greek yogurt? — just wondered how that would work…
Casey now in PDX – These days, I always DRINK the whey that drains from my homemade yogurt! But as an experiment, I invite you to try the substitution the next time you make these popovers. Hopefully it will work out for you, and then you can report your success.
….sitting here waiting for my popovers to pop. Have the marmalade ready to go….
update: just finished my popover fix…..orange marmalade, eggs and Serrano ham…heaven!
These look suspiciously like the Yorkshire Puddings my Mom used to make, except with only a quarter cup of flour. A perfect container for gravy! I made them once with our thanksgiving dinner (mistake). Now I have to make them every time! It gets a little dicey getting the oven up to temp just at the moment that you want to hold all your veggies in a warm, not hot, oven.
Hi Kevin,
I have to admit, I’m with Wendy on this one.
Now I’m sitting here with an incredibly strong craving for Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding (popovers in USA). I have to admit to being a gravyholic.
That is a great compliment to my mom’s cooking. Once the roast beast was done and sitting comfortably to set its juices, she would crank up the stove, and pour the hot fat from the meat into the blackened muffin tins (we NEVER made muffins, only Yorkshire pud). The batter would already have gone through the blender with a pinch of baking powder to make them rise. You had to get them into the oven quick, and not open the door again until the smoke alarm went off. Then they were ready.
Meanwhile, she would de-glaze the roasting pan with whatever bottle of home made wine was closest to hand. Without skipping a beat on the stirring, she’d add some flour that had already been worked into a little butter for thickening, the stock from the meat, and the water from the veggies. Salt, pepper and sherry to taste, run the gravy through a strainer, and we were good to go.
We were lucky enough to have a warming trolley that had a big compartment for the roast, and at least 4 or 5 glass dishes in the top (each about a meatloaf size) for veggies and gravy.
Once it was all carved and served, I would pop my Yorkshire, and fill it with gravy, letting that wonderful elixir spill all over my roast beast, and just trickle over my veggies. I would NEVER let it touch the outside of my roast potatoes tho’, ‘cos mom had a way of getting them so crispy and crunchy on the outside, and pure fluffy heaven on the inside. Using the animal fat from the roast as the ‘non-stick’ agent in the muffin pans, not only gave them a quick and easy release, but adds a wonderful flavor if you are using them in a savory dish. However, a liberal hand can cause quite a bit of smokiness from the oven….. hence knowing when they are done by the smoke alarm.
I love reading your posts and recipes – but now am stuck in nostalgic food cravings…. gee, not the thing for my healthy eating kick…lol
These sound like the popovers we would get as kids dining in the”fancy” restaurant. I will make them and share them with my sister for her birthday. Thanks so much.
Hi Kevin,
since i got this recipe i have made this often for breakfast my husband and i love the honey on it i use all organic and its so tasty we sure thank you for this awesome popover i just sent to my sister she wants to make these for my mom and sister
GOD bless you Linda
Linda – Thanks for writing. Sounds like you enjoy the popovers as much as I do!