Popovers Recipe - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good popovers? ›

My biggest tip for creating perfect popovers is to use warm milk and room-temperature eggs with absolutely no chill on them. Do not take the milk and eggs from the fridge and use them. Cold ingredients will give you dense popovers. Warm ingredients will give you light, airy, and perfect popovers.

King Arthur Baking says that there are a few ways your popover could go wrong. First, you must use all-purpose flour because it has a solid gluten structure to capture all the steam. Secondly, you must make sure to preheat your oven because the hotter the oven, the higher the popovers.

The flour needs some time to absorb into the liquid, which not only thickens the batter a bit, it also allows the gluten molecules to relax which makes for a lighter, not chewy popover. The resting period also makes the batter more velvety and helps allow air bubbles to release.

Dense popovers (either from not rising or not getting nice hollows inside) can result from a couple things but usually it is by either not starting with room temperature eggs and milk, not preheating the popover pan, not using a quality popover tin, and/or making too thick of a batter.

Too cold and you won't get the popovers to steam internally quickly enough. But be aware that you shouldn't make it too hot. If your milk and/or butter is hot enough to cook the eggs while mixing, the batter won't rise. Best to use all warm ingredients in the 40-50 degrees celsius (100-120 fahrenheit) range.

How to make popovers. Before we get started: all of your ingredients should be at warm room temperature.

Grease the cups of a nonstick (6-cup) popover pan very generously with softened butter or the cups of a cast-iron pan generously with vegetable shortening.

Making popover batter, you can also make ahead of time store in refrigerator up to 2-3 days!

Remove from oven:

Popovers lose their crunch if they linger in the pan, so turn them out on a wire rack immediately and poke a small opening in the side of each with a paring knife to let the steam escape.

Finished popovers will be golden-brown, feel dry to the touch, and sound hollow when tapped. Prick with a Knife, Cool, and Eat!: Turn the popovers out onto a drying rack. Pierce the bottoms with a knife to allow steam to escape. Cool just enough so they can be handled and then eat immediately.

Are popovers supposed to be eggy? ›

Oh, the dilemma that so often stems from baking popovers — those hollowed rolls with a contrasting crunchy, flaky exterior and moist, eggy interior. They are the American relative to the British Yorkshire pudding, an evolution of the latter that disregards the use of beef drippings in the pan (and instead uses butter).

A popover pan should be greased. I prefer to use melted butter, but oil or nonstick spray would work too.

To make ahead: You can make the batter and refrigerate it for up to one day before baking. Just let the batter come to room temperature and whisk it well or whirl it in the blender for a few seconds before pouring it into the muffin tins. To store: Store baked and cooled popovers in a ziptop bag for up to a day.

Chef's Notes. The difference between popovers and Yorkshire puddings is that Yorkshires use the beef fat (the drippings from a beef roast). These popovers are a bit lighter in flavor and you can also prepare them before the roast is even done.

Popovers are sneaky-simple; they LOOK like there's nothing to them, but oh, the side paths you can go down... Make the batter in a blender; make it with a whisk. Beat till smooth and frothy; leave some lumps. Everything should be at room temperature.

An additional trick for keeping popovers crisp is to gently poke a hole in the side of each one with a sharp knife when you remove it from the pan to allow extra team to escape without deflating the crust dome.