Perfect Popovers - Kitchen Joy (2024)

I don't know about you guys, but I’ve always wanted to make popovers. They seem so impressive in all their golden, puffed up glory. Popovers are basically a beautiful, puffy, hollow, crêpe-in-the-shape-of-a-muffin that pair perfectly with just about any spread you can imagine. It only seemed fitting that popovers were the first recipe I worked on after my long blogging break when I had my daughter. I’ll always remember our first time baking together. I did the work and she was snuggled in her baby carrier on my belly watching all the excitement.

To achieve truly impressive heights with your popovers, you need a popover pan. However, a very tasty, albeit more height-challenged version can be achieved using a standard muffin pan. For comparison sake, I've included photos of both versions. In my popover adventures, I learned a few things to keep in mind when baking popovers.

• Start with room-temperature ingredients. Why? Room temperature ingredients mix together to form pockets of air, which when baked result in a higher rise. If you want your popovers to rise high, let your ingredients come to room temperature before mixing.

• Let the batter rest. This is similar to a crepe batter, which also benefits greatly from rest time. This allows the very delicate batter to be perfectly smooth and hom*ogenous. It has everything to do with texture. 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. This results in a lighter, more delicate popover.

• Popovers get their ‘pop’ from steam. This means that when they come out of the oven, there will be steam inside them that needs to escape. If you don’t want your beautiful popovers to collapse, simply use a sharp paring knife and pierce the bottom of the hot popovers to allow steam to escape and place them on a cooling rack. Do not let them cool in the pan, they’ll lose their shape.

• The oven and pan needs to be VERY hot. Be sure to preheat the popover pan when you preheat the oven. You’ll need to spray the pan very generously as well. The batter should sizzle when you pour it into the pan. Do not open the oven during the baking process. Doing so could cause your popovers to deflate.

(Scroll down for printable version of this recipe.)

By Kitchen Joy®

Makes 6 popovers (or 12 muffin pan size popovers**)

Ingredients

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 ½ cups whole milk, at room temperature

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon coarse salt (or ½ teaspoon regular salt)

Directions

Add eggs to large bowl and whisk until lightly beaten. Add milk and whisk again until combined. Add flour and salt, and whisk just until combined. Do not overmix.

Let batter rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

While batter is resting, place popover pan on a rimmed baking sheet and place on center rack of oven. Preheat to 450°F. (Preheat for at least 20 minutes to be sure temperature has been reached, or use an oven thermometer.)

Once pan is preheated and batter is finished resting, remove pan from oven and quickly spray generously with cooking spray. Pour batter into popover pan, filling each cup about ⅔ full.

Bake at 450°F for 20 minutes, then lower oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking for 20 more minutes.

Remove pan from oven and promptly remove popovers from pan and lay on a wire rack. Pierce the bottom or side of each popover with a sharp paring knife to allow steam to escape.

Serve with butter, jam, Nutella, or whatever your heart desires!

**Muffin pan variation: Follow all preparation above, using a 12 cup muffin pan in place of the popover pan. Bake at 450°F for 13 minutes then lower temperature to 350°F for 13 minutes.

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