May 14, 2008

When I was a kid my family had a favorite restaurant that we would go to with a Dutch theme. There were windmills, the staff wore wooden shoes, and the servers all dressed in quaint costumes. But the best part about the place was the fact that they served all you could eat popovers fresh from the oven.
Never heard of a popover? Well, they are a type of roll and they are hollow inside. This makes them very light, but the best part is that you can fill the inside with whatever you want. They are good at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even as a snack. Unfortunately they don’t keep well, so plan on cooking them and eating them (personally I’ve found that they taste too good and get eaten up right away, so I’ve never had to try to keep them for more than an hour) when they come out of the oven.
Here’s the list of ingredients:
3 eggs 1 cup of milk (1% works great)
3 tablespoons butter, melted (you can also use regular olive oil)
1 cup all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
- Start heating your oven early on to 375 degrees; it is important that the oven be completely up to temperature before you put the popovers in to cook.
- Use butter to generously lubricate some muffin pan cups. What size to use? I have a pan of 12 muffin cups and I generally get 10 popovers from it. You can use larger size ones depending upon how big you want your popovers to be.
- Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, slightly beat the eggs and then add in the milk followed by the melted butter. Slowly add the sifted flour and salt, mixing until the batter is smooth. Do not over mix.
- Pour the mix into your buttered muffin cups (no paper liners here!), filling each about 3/4 of the way up. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes. DO NOT open the oven door! I’ve got a glass window I can look through to keep an eye on mine, but if you don’t you may need to experiment with your popovers to get the timing right.
- Take them out of the over and quickly cut a small slit in the side of each one to let the seam out. Put them back in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until the tops are a nice, crispy brown.
- Remove from oven and quickly remove them from the muffin pan (a butter knife comes in handy here because these things are hot).
- Serve and enjoy.
Next week: asparagus!

