Popovers

Any native Dallasite knows the glory of popovers and strawberry butter from Neiman Marcus. Because of this, while at the Chef's Catalog warehouse sale, I bought 2 popover pans, but rarely make them. They are easy, but require a lot of steps (and a LOT of butter!).

Brian asked me where popovers came from. I didn't know, so I tried to do a little research. It all seems a little sketchy, but seems to be an Americanized version of the Yorkshire pudding, but using butter rather than animal fat drippings.

Here's the recipe that I use, which always results in gorgeous, crispy on the ouside, slightly custardy on the inside, popovers. Now, I've heard you can make them in a muffin tin, but I cannot attest to how they come out. My recipe came with the popover pan.

Popovers

1 1/4 C. Flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 C. milk
1 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
2 TBSPs unsalted butter, cut into even pieces depending on how many popovers you are going to make - I used a 6 cup popover pan, so I cut the butter into 6 even pieces).

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees and set rack in the middle of the oven.
-Blend flour, salt, eggs, milk, and 1 TBSP melted butter until the mixture is a heavy cream consistency (I use a mixer, but a blender would work too). Set aside.
-Spray pan with non-stick spray. Put popover pan in oven and preheat popover pan for about 2 minutes.
-Remove pan, and place 1 piece of butter in each cup, and place pan back in oven.
-Fill each cup halfway with batter. Bake for 20 minutes.
-Reduce heat to 300 degrees, and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes.

To be completely honest, Neiman's popovers are great, but these are knock your socks off... My guess is because no matter what, you are not going to get a straight-from-the-oven popover at Neiman's - they are always slightly cooled off. You can see the steam coming off mine in the photo!



Sources:
http://home.insightbb.com/~bonnett/popover/popover_history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popover