Letters From My Kitchen: P is for Popovers (Jessica)

Dear Friends,

This week, I had a popover party! I am very lucky to be on vacation (part 2) this week and in my free time with family and family friends, I made popovers. MANY moons ago, I came across this popover recipe and have been waiting for the perfect audience for whom to make them. The only way to eat these delightfully puffy snacks is right out of the oven. They sink and get soggy if not eaten immediately!
The first time I had popovers was on a family vacation to Acadia National Park (in Maine) when I was a kid. We visited Jordan Pond and I remember my parents made us walk ALL the way around the pond before we could eat at the restaurant there! Argghhh! But the specialty popovers were worth it. :)

I looked up some tips and tricks for the fine art of making popovers (as they are temperamental) and the following is what I did...

Popovers
from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole milk (at room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange oven racks so popovers can bake in the lower half of the oven. Put a dab of butter in each cup of a muffin tin.

2. In a medium bowl, beat eggs slightly and add milk and vanilla extract.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix only until small lumps remain. Be careful not to over-mix!

5. Put muffin pan on a cookie sheet and put in the pre-heated oven for a few minutes to get tray hot. The butter will melt.
6. Pour batter into hot muffin pan and fill each tin half-full. If the batter does not fill every tin, fill the remaining tins half-full with water.

7. Bake (leaving muffin tin on cookie sheet) at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Decrease oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and serve immediately!

*Notes: (a) Do not open the oven while the popovers are baking! This will release steam and the popovers will sink. (b) Use room temperature ingredients as it will make the popovers rise better. And (c) I used a muffin tin because I don't have a popover pan. If you have one, your popovers will probably rise more evenly and puff higher.*

Review:
These were delicious! Oh, they were so light and had the perfect amount of vanilla. I think these count as as sweet popovers, but you could definitely take them another direction and make them savory. Think cheese and chives...mmmm. We ate ours with butter and strawberry jam. Perfect. The method I used worked well, but there are endless variations you could make to create your ideal popover. Once you make these once, you will want to make them again!