I’ve been making popovers ever since I was eight years old. I found the recipe in The Children’s Friend (a magazine put out by my church for kids under age 12) and I was hooked.
They are super-easy, thrifty, fun to make and, even better, delicious!
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
I am now going to tell you the top-secret, ultra hush-hush, uber-surprising tricks for making good popovers:
- Get the muffin tin cold. Normally, I stick it in the refrigerator, but since it was a cold day, I put the pan on the porch. (See the snow?)
- Do NOT (do not , do not, do not) pre-heat your oven! I am serious. You are going to put a cold pan into your cold oven once you are ready to bake them. There is something about doing it this way that makes the popovers puff up so prettily. You’ll see what I mean in a minute.
Beat the eggs with a wire whisk.
Add the milk to the eggs. Mix.
Add the flour and salt.
Beat everything together with the wire whisk until it is thoroughly mixed together.
Spray the cold muffin tin with a baking spray. I like Pam - both the spray and my niece.
Fill the muffin tins 1/2 full and put the pan into the cold oven. Then turn up the heat to 450 degrees. (Cold to hot. It works.)
Set your timer for 25 minutes and then try to do something else while you wait. You must do something else while you wait, because you don’t want to open the oven while they are baking or your popovers won’t pop.
THE WAITING BEGINS
“If I look at you with my big black eyes, will you give me a popover?”
“No? Really? Bummer.”
“If you give me a popover, I’ll lick my lips for you. See how good I am at it?”
“No? No? Why is it always ‘no’?
“Okay then… I’ll just go over here and sulk a little bit. I’m okay. Really. You don’t need to feel guilty or anything about how mean you are to me.”
THE EATING COMMENCES
Since we can’t open the oven to peek at the progress of our popovers, we need to resort to trying to see them through the oven door.
See that? They are popping up! Oh boy!
Yum. Drool. Heart beating quickly. They are ready now to take out of the oven!
Aren’t they gorgeous?
A word to the wise: Admire your popovers while they are in the oven, because they won’t stay puffed up like this for long.
Now you are going to murder your popovers by sticking a toothpick in them to release the steam.
I know… I was just overly dramatic, particularly since they start to deflate as soon as you take them out of the oven. But I often feel so sad at this point.
Why do they have to die? Why? Why? WHY?
Because poking them with a toothpick turns them into the cutest little cups and that’s a good thing, Martha Stewart.
They are perfect with homemade, fresh peach freezer jam.
See how frosty the jar is? That’s because I had just barely taken it out of the freezer. I popped it into the microwave for about 30 seconds to get it loosened up enough to eat it.
Oh my…I do love a good, fresh-fruit jam. Nothing like it anywhere.
I’ll teach you how to make it next summer, once the peaches in our orchard get ripe.
Popovers with jam. See how they settle down into the cutest little cups, just perfect for putting jam or honey in them? And they are so light! I could eat half of a pan in one sitting.
But I won’t.
Because I shouldn’t.
Although, I have.
I can’t wait to try these!!!
love it tryed on my kids now a family fav thanks heaps
Saturday morning breakfast! I can’t wait to try these in the morning. Thanks for sharing this with all of us. I also can’t wait to learn how to make peach freezer jam!
Hi Ro!
These sound wonderful and so easy. I do have a silly question for you though, the muffin pan….is it a mini muffin pan?
Thank you for sharing all your wonderful knowledge with us.
Hugs
~Di
What a good looking recipe. And so basic. I made these also when I was a young girl but have forgotten all about them. So does this recipe make a dozen?
That looks delicious!
Peach Freezer jam!!! ??? Didn’t know you could make that! WOW — looking forward to the directions on how to do that. Also, I’m trying your yummy looking popovers tomorrow for breakfast! YUM
My popovers totally didn’t even POP. Of course I only found your site after this happened. Maybe Popovers for Piglet wasn’t the best recipe to start with. Must bookmark your site for my next try
How are they supposed to look (thru the oven window, of course) before you take them out?
Oh I can’t wait to try these. They are soooo going to be worth the WW points especially with some honey in them. I am loving this blog and have shared it with my walking buddy. Thanks again.
My husband has been asking for these for forever! I’ve tried several recipes and no pop…but now I have the top-secret, ultra hush-hush, uber-surprising tricks I will try again.
You’ll have to tell me what he thinks!
Sounds like a fun recipe to try tomorrow morning with my boys. It’s a no-school day, so we bake! Looks like a fun one, and it doesn’t take too long that they lose interest waiting for them to come out of the oven! YUM!
Oooooh! YUM! Going to try these this weekend. Love the pics of your pup! SOOO cute!!!
Can I come to your house and have some? I adore popovers. You’ll have to tell me what you think!
I’ll bet that, if you were to add 5 more minutes to your cold-start cook time, they would maintain their shape, which is what they do (maintain their puffed up shape) at Jordan Pond House (in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island in Maine), the premier source in the world of hot popovers. While I LOVED your article, your popovers should be more browned and should NOT fall so much. Try it!