Popovers with Leslie: Recipes on posthoc

by Leslie

Many people haven't even had a popover, let alone made one. I don't think I've ever seen them on a restaurant menu with the exception of a charming brunch place in New York called Popover Place, where they serve the light eggy hollow breads straight from the oven with strawberry butter. (How divine does that sound?)

And popovers are the perfect food to make after a night of partying. I make them for out of town guests when I'm too hung-over to create a nice egg and bacon breakfast and too poor to go out for one. Even in this blurry eyed state, when the thought of dealing with pancakes or even scrambling an egg is a bit to much to ask for my fragile mind, popovers come to the rescue by being just so damn easy to make.

Due to the eggs being the only rising ingredient in the recipe, they will fall within a few minutes, but most popovers don't reach that age. And even if they do fall, they are still taste great. They rise up out of the humble muffin tins into these light, delectable bits of fancy that demand on being smothered with the best jams and real butter you have. Due to the popover's rather plain ingredients, they become the perfect vehicle for toppings. I once served popovers with boursin cheese for a more savory eating experience one afternoon for a group of friends and it was the hit of the night.

And the best thing about popovers is that they do use such simple and cheap ingredients-complete staples that you already probably have in your house-that you could make them tomorrow morning! Give it a try and get ready to call your mom to brag about your baking skills.

You'll need:

1 cup Flour

1 tsp. Salt

2 Eggs

1 cup Milk

1 tbsp. Vegetable oil Butter or cooking spray

(Warning: this recipe makes only six popovers, which is perfect for two, but you may want to double it if you have more people and don't worry, doubling it happens all the time. I wouldn't double it to make extra for tomorrow. The eggs get kinda sketchy after 24 hours.)

1. Heat up the oven to 375 degrees. Throw in an empty muffin tin on the middle shelf, adjusting the other shelves below the muffin tin, so there is no shelf above the muffin tin.

2. (If you have cooking spray like Pam or whatever, ignore the this step.) Melt some butter in a small bowl in the microwave. Set aside.

3. Dump all ingredients into a bowl that preferably has a pouring spout and stir contents until it has the consistency of heavy cream. (Now, you can use one of those hand-held mixers that are so easy to use-I love mine because it takes 30 seconds to get rid of all those little bumps of flour. Or you could also throw all the ingredients into that illustrious blender-and that has the pour spout you will need later…It's your call.)

4. Put on oven mitt and pull the heated muffin tin out of the oven. Using a pastry brush of a wadded-up paper towel, coat each muffin tin with butter. Or if you are using the cooking oil spray, just spray each tin. I highly recommend the cooking oil spray, because, well, it's easier and remember, I'm usually hung-over when I do this step. The butter/oil should sizzle when it hits the hot muffin tin.

5. Pour popover mix into each muffin tin to almost the rim, leaving a scant millimeter or two from the top. This is to insure that you have towering wonderful popovers. This is usually accomplished by using real popover tins (No thanks, Williams-Sonoma-a great marketing scheme, when muffin tins will do just nicely-and wouldn't you rather put that money into something else, like that cute pair of shoes you saw last week?) Steps 1-5 shouldn't take more than five minutes, which is a blessing, isn't it?

6. Put loaded muffin tin back in oven. Set timer for 20 minutes. Grab glass of water and two aspirin. Head back to bed and moan. Do not check popovers.

7. When timer rings, check popovers. If they aren't the perfect shade of golden-brown. Just wait five more minutes, while you pull out some jam and butter.

8. Take popovers out and serve immediately. Crack one open. Ooh and aah over the nice hollow space as you cram it full of jam and such. And enjoy.

9. Call Mom and gloat about eating fresh-from-the-oven popovers for breakfast.

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