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.

Why do popovers fail?

The gluten in flour (and protein from the eggs) create the structure that traps steam in rising popovers . Without this structure, steam will escape like air from a punctured balloon, and your popovers will puddle, not pop.

How to tell if popovers are done?

Reduce the Heat and Continue Baking: Still without opening the oven, reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes. Now you can open the oven door and check the popovers. Finished popovers will be golden-brown, feel dry to the touch, and sound hollow when tapped .

What is the best flour to use for popovers?

Bread flour produces a popover that's 30 percent taller; weighing the flour ensures that the batter is always the right consistency for the best rise.

What are the biggest causes of popover failures?

Until last night… Preheat your popover pan. NEVER open the oven door while baking. Use room temperature ingredients. Use the freshest eggs possible. Jun 22, 2016

Does popover batter have to rest?

Plan Ahead: The batter will need to rest for at least 1 hour, up to 48 hours ahead . For the best flavor and texture let the batter rest for 24 hours. Always allow it to come to room temperature for an hour.

What happens to an underbaked popover?

If your popovers lose volume when they come out of the oven, they are probably underbaked. When these airy baked goods aren't cooked enough, too much steam stays trapped inside. That moisture condenses once they're removed from the oven, causing them to collapse .

Should popover batter be room temp?

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.

Should popover pans be greased?

A popover pan should be greased . I prefer to use melted butter, but oil or nonstick spray would work too. Greasing the pan ensures that the finished popovers don't stick and promotes browning on the exterior of the popover. After you've greased your pan, place it into the oven while it preheats.

Why aren't my popovers airy?

There can be a few different things that can mess up the rise of popovers. Preheat the oven to 425 with the pan preheating in the oven. When baking don't open it again until they're done. If you open the oven door the temperature inside can drop too quickly and the popovers will not rise properly.

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).

How to prevent popover from deflating?

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.

Should popover batter be cold or room temperature?

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 .

Popovers (2024)

December 13, 2021

Recipes

Pick your pan and follow our family tips for the best results.

Susie Middleton

2 comments

In our family, popovers are a Christmas morning tradition. My Dad, now 91, still makes them. In the old days, we used a cast-iron muffin tin. These days we use a nonstick popover pan(pictured in top photo in collage above). But while the popovers coming out of the popover pan are impressive, the humble popovers you get from a cast-iron muffin tin (lower photos in collage above) are delicious and have their merits, too – namely more eggy custard to spread butter on! Either way, keep in mind a few tips from Dad for the best popovers.

1) The night before you want to make popovers, leave the milk and eggs out so that they’ll be at room temperature in the morning. 2) For the best rise, start the oven out at a high temperature. After 20 minutes, drop the temperature to finish baking. Don’t open the oven during baking! 3) For the biggest, tallest popovers, use a 6-cup nonstick popover pan. For denser, more eggy popovers, use a cast-iron muffin tin. (Be sure to grease the pan.) 4) Make sure everyone is at the breakfast table the minute the popovers come out of the oven!

Makes 6 large or 10 to 12 small popovers

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled, more softened butter for rubbing the pan and for serving
Vegetable shortening (if using cast-iron pan)
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups whole milk, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups (5.6 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
_____________________

1. Heat the oven to 425°F. Arrange a rack in the center of the oven.

2. 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.

3. Combine the milk, flour, and salt in a blender and blend thoroughly. Add the eggs to the blender and blend until smooth. Lastly, blend in the melted 2 tablespoons butter.

4. Pour the batter into the cups (they will be about 3/4 to 7/8 full), dividing it evenly. Put the pan in the oven and do not open the oven door for the entire baking time.

Eggs

Comments (2)

Perry Colmore

Boston

Hi Susie. I’m dying to make your popovers but would have to use gluten-free flour and plant based milk (my choice would be almond milk). Do you think it’ll work?Merry Christmas, happy eating. Love your food writing!!

December 15, 2021 - 11:39am

Susie Middleton

West Tisbury

Hi Perry! Hope you are having a great holiday season. My advice to you, since popovers have so few ingredients, is to follow one of the gluten-free popover recipes online rather than modifying this one. The final product of a traditional popover depends largely on the lift from the eggs and the gluten in the flour to hold the lift, and since I am not well-versed in gluten-free baking, I'd rather recommend a trusted source like King Arthur Baking https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/gluten-free-popovers-recipe. (That is not a vegan recipe, but I'm thinking substituting nut milk for dairy milk would not be a big problem.) I would think it would be easy enough to substitute gluten-free flour for regular flour, as these recipes recommend, but most of them seem to have xanthum gum in them as well, which is likely there to provide elasticity (more on that on King Arthur site as well). So as much as I'd love for you to make these popovers, I think you'll meet with better success following a gluten-free one! Take Care, susie

December 15, 2021 - 11:51am

Popovers (2024)

Pick your pan and follow our family tips for the best results.

Eggs

Comments (2)

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