Popovers

Martha Stewart Living (January 2010)

We dream of baking perfect popovers. 

In these fantasies, we pull big, airy clouds of bread from the oven, and then slather them with butter or dunk them in soup. (Or both. After all, it's a dream.)

The popovers of our reality, however, never quite live up to the popovers of our dreams. They're always just okay.

There was our first outing, at Thanksgiving 2008, with popovers from BLT Steak. The gruyere topping was delicious, but they lacked the airy quality of those at the BLT restaurant.

Since that initial outing, we've taken some time off from popovers, but we've been back on the popover wagon this winter.

This is a tale of two (more) popover recipes -- a tale of triumph and tragedy.

The first is from Martha Stewart Living's January 2010 issue, which featured both soup and popovers on the cover. We wasted no time in whipping up a batch to have with some split-pea soup we made a few weeks ago. 

These are very good popovers -- lighter than our initial attempt from BLT but still not as light as we were hoping.

Not content with this attempt, we were excited to see Martha Stewart tweet the "Best Popovers Ever" on her Twitter account. (Incidentally, you can follow The Bitten Word on Twitter as well.) 

The Twitter popovers were a huge success.  The popovers had risen beautifully. But as we went to invert the pan and remove the popovers, we realized our mistake.

We had forgotten to grease the pan. 

The good news?  Wow -- these are great popovers! The insides were light and airy, just as we had wanted. The bad news? They were essentially ruined because they wouldn't come out of the pan. 

Next time, we'll revisit the Twitter popovers. And we won't forget to grease the pan.

Popover tips or recipes to share?  Let us know in the comments.

Popovers
Martha Stewart Living (January 2010)
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(This photo: Martha Stewart Living)

You may need to make these in batches. If not serving immediately, poke a small hole in each to release steam. The popovers hold up surprisingly well; reheat just before serving.

Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients

    •    2 1/2 cups whole milk
    •    2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    •    1 teaspoon coarse salt
    •    6 large eggs, lightly whisked
    •    Unsalted butter, softened, for pans

Directions

    1.    Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Whisk together milk, flour, and salt. Whisk in eggs. (Mixture will be lumpy.)

    2.    Heat two 6-cup popover pans in oven for 5 minutes, then quickly brush cups generously with butter. Fill each cup a little more than halfway with batter. Bake for 20 minutes.

    3.    Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Turn out popovers, and serve warm.

Best Popovers Ever
From Martha Stewart's Twitter Feed

Place 12C popover pan in oven/heat 350F

sift 4Cflour + 1T&2t salt

heat 4C milk

whisk 8 eggs slowly + milk & flour

spray hot pan w/cooking spray fill w/batter top w/10oz grated gruyere

bake 15min turn+bake 35 min invert to remove