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Popovers are easy to make if you follow a few simple tips. They’re a great holiday tradition or anytime treat. Here’s our favorite popover recipe.
Tip
The only tricky part of making popovers on a holiday is that they really hog the oven. They need a lot of space, and you need to leave the oven closed for 45 minutes. Be sure to think through the timing beforehand.
To blow off steam
To blow off steam (idiom). Also, to let off steam: (Of a person) Get rid of pent-up energy or strong emotion. (Of a baked good) Transform, as if by magic, from thin, lumpy batter to glorious popover in under one hour.
It’s the holiday season. Sure, there are the joys and the thanks and the givings. Also, though? There are all the extra little reasons you’ll need to blow off some steam. You know the ones I mean.
Popovers are a favorite holiday tradition
When times get tough, take a cue from some of New England’s earliest settlers and bake a bread that needs to let off a little steam just as much as you do. Popovers are crisp and buttery on the outside, and, owing to the copious amounts of steam they trap and ultimately release, positively ethereal on the inside. If you let them, they will be your soulmates in this holiday endeavor. Please let them.
Popover recipe protips
Popovers rise when the oven’s heat turns the batter’s liquid into steam, and the steam gets trapped inside the strong structure formed by the eggy, floury crust.
Popover pans aren’t necessary, but their tall shape and well-spaced cups help batter climb high as heat circulates around each popover.
When mixing the batter, quit while you’re ahead. You won’t remove all the lumps by mixing, and you don’t have to.
When baking, leave the oven closed for the first 45 minutes to allow the steam to work its magic. After 45 minutes, when the structure is set, you’ll pierce each popover with a single slit of a paring knife and return to the oven. This allows the steam to escape after it’s done its job and prevents the insides from being soggy.
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Popover Recipe
Makes 12 large popovers or 18 small ones. For large popovers, use two popover pans; for small ones, use regular muffin pans.
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F with the top rack in the center. Lightly grease two popover or muffin pans.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and water. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter while whisking. Add the flour and salt and mix until well combined but still slightly lumpy. Divide the batter among the pans, filling each well only about 1/3 full.
- Bake for 45 minutes without opening the oven. Then cut a small slit in the top of each popover to release the steam and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Serve immediately.
Nutrition Information:
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 136Total Fat: 4.7gCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 0.5gProtein: 6g
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I’ve never made popovers before, but these look easy enough!
Your popovers look delicious and puffed! I’ve never tried making them because I can justify buying the special pan for it. Perhaps I could use a muffin tray?
You can absolutely use a muffin pan. Just grease it well. The recipe will yield 18 medium-sized popovers (from 1 1/2 muffin pans). Good luck!
These look wonderful and perfectly formed. Mine have great flavor but look no where as neat as yours. I hope you have a great weekend. Blessings…Mary
Thanks, Mary. A couple of mine in the other pan looked pretty crazy. It’s part of the fun!
Carolyn, This recipe contains very different proportions and baking process from what I’ve traditionally used. I have long used the Rombauer/Joy o C recipe, aka Yorkshire Pudding.
I ‘will’ try this one. Can you offer a comparison? and will it work in the traditional Yorkshire Pudding pan?
My now 20 something, college kids ask for it all the time.
Hi, Henry! I’m just looking at my Joy of Cooking (the 1997 edition). I hadn’t remembered making their popovers before, but in fact I think they’re the first ones I ever made. I remember being slightly terrified, and forgetting to puncture them, and them collapsing but still tasting delicious. So. (That’s their popover recipe, by the way, not the Yorkshire pudding. The recipes are similar, and I think you’re supposed to be able to use popover and Yorkshire Pudding batters interchangeably in general, but I must admit I’ve made nary a Yorkshire Pudding in my day.)
The first line of the JoC popover recipe headnotes says, “Baking advice for these high, crusty, hollow beauties varies widely.” And I would agree that the baking instructions are quite different, although they both have the crisping-the-outside phase and the drying-the-inside phase. The proportions aren’t so different, though, are they? A tad more liquid in the JoC, but nothing to write home about, I don’t think.
Which edition are you working from? Let’s make this faux-scientific!
It’s crazy but i dont think i’ve ever had a popover! Your pictures are gorgeous, and make me want to try them!
Thanks, Caitlin. They’re very photogenic!
Just stumbled upon your blog via tastespotting. This recipe looks lovely. I’ve never eaten popovers before so I might have to try and make them.
Thanks, Debbie! I’d never had popovers, or heard of them, until I met my husband. The experience is definitely worth the minimal effort!