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Popovers are the classic, puffy and delicious roll that every home cook should know how to make. Here’s how to make these sweet, slightly Yorkshire pudding -esque treats, with a few tips to get the absolute best texture possible.
For more great sweet dough recipes, why not make these Brown Sugar Caramel Cream Cinnamon Buns? Or try my Cornbread Muffins instead?
Popovers Recipe
Popovers are the American answer to the classic English savory side dish, the Yorkshire pudding. Made from nothing more than an eggy, milky flour batter, these popovers should swell up and over the pan, resulting in a soft, delicate texture with a crispy yet malleable exterior.
This recipe makes for some tasty popovers, but what really takes it over the edge is the dusting of cinnamon sugar at the end. The batter itself is vaguely savory, but the cinnamon sugar turns it basically into a soft and chewy doughnut – what’s not to like?
The Difference Between Popovers and Yorkshire Pudding
The main difference between Yorkshire puddings and popovers is that you use beef drippings to make Yorkshire puddings, then eat it with your roast beef. It’s a specific popover that uses drippings for a beef flavor. This popover recipe can be sweet or savory, the choice is up to you!
Ingredients for Popovers
Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.
• Eggs
• All-purpose flour
• Milk
• Salt
• Vanilla extract
• Cinnamon sugar
How To Make Sweet Popovers with Cinnamon Sugar
This is just a recap, please see the recipe card for exact directions.
- Grease six 6 ounce custard cups
- In a medium bowl beat the eggs slightly
- Beat in the flour, milk, vanilla, and salt until just smooth, avoiding overbeating
- Preheat the custard cups for 1 minute
- Fill the custard cups until half full
- Bake at 450 Fahrenheit for 20 minutes
- Lower the temp to 350 Fahrenheit and bake for 20 more minutes
- Remove and serve piping hot, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and serve
Why Do You Have To Be Careful To Not Overbeat The Batter?
It is a pretty common instruction with any kind of recipe using a flour batter to make sure to not overbeat the mixture, but why is this a problem?
After all, when we make bread (which is something everyone does at home regularly, right?), we mix the bread dough for ages.
Well, the trouble with over mixing is that it has a tendency to make the batter tough thanks to the development of gluten.
Gluten is those lovely strands of chewiness that help give bread its defining characteristic – without lots of mixing to encourage gluten development, the bread just doesn’t taste right.
However, in something that is supposed to be as delicate and tender as these popovers, too much gluten makes for an unpleasant texture.
Plus, more gluten leads to a thicker, more solid interior, whereas these popovers are supposed to be almost empty inside due to their airiness.
The best way to avoid over mixing and ending up with too much gluten is to only mix it until the batter is just smooth. It is fine to have a few slight spots of flour left; just mix until there are no big streaks or clumps of flour throughout the batter. The remaining flour will hydrate and mix in on its own as you set everything else up and pour it into the custard cups, helping to keep the batter light and soft.
How To Get Really Crispy Bottoms On Your Popovers
One of the best parts about popovers is their unique and tasty texture. Soft on the inside, yet delicately crispy on the outside.
However, one big problem with making popovers at home is the fact that the bottoms tend to not have that same crispiness, and they usually end up slightly soggy.
A very cool trick for making popovers super crispy on the bottom is to preheat the pan or custard cups being used for about 10 minutes in the oven.
Once you pull them out, they should be piping out. Then, pour just a little bit of vegetable oil into each of the cups.
From there, pour the batter into each cup as usual; this time, however, the bottom of the batter will start to crisp up immediately after pouring the batter, resulting in super crispy and delicious popovers every time.
Just pay special attention to the temperature to make sure that you do not accidentally burn them!
Looking for more delicious Bread recipes? Try these out:
Enjoy!
Love,
Karlynn
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Popovers
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450°F. Grease six 6-ounce custard cups or popover pans with butter and set aside.
- Place the eggs into a medium bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add in the flour, milk, vanilla and salt, then mix until just smooth. Don't overmix!
- Place the popover pans into the oven and heat for 2 minutes.
- Once heated, remove from the oven and carefully fill each cup half full of batter. Return to the oven.
- Bake for 20 minutes then WITHOUT OPENING the door, decrease the oven temperature to 350°F and bake for 10- 20 minutes more until the batter "pops over" the edge and is a darker goldewn brown.
- Whisk together the sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Toss each popover in the sugar mixture, coating well and serve warm.
Notes
- to make these savory to go with a roast, leave out the vanilla and serve plain
Lynda says
I have a question. I do make popovers and they don’t have a crispy bottom. Your recipe to solve that problem sounds great and am going to try it. However, in the recipe it says to butter pans then to preheat pan for 2 min. remove and pour in batter. For a crispy bottom should I butter pans and preheat for 10 min? Won’t that burn the butter in the pans? A 2 min preheat should work fine but 10 min. makes me nervous.Thanks so much for your help.