When it comes to holiday dining, a special place is held at the table for popovers. But aren’t they difficult to bake? Not at all. In fact, you could even consider them the easiest – and perhaps tastiest – item on your menu this holiday season.
Twisted, warm, light and buttery, popovers are muffin-like pancakes, cousins to Britain’s Yorkshire Pudding across the pond (the only difference being that Yorkshire Puddings are baked in the drippings of a beef roast, while popovers are baked in melted butter, in our case Challenge Butter). Delicious, of course, served beside a roast, popovers are also divine slathered with butter and jam, filled with a poached egg, or dusted with cinnamon and sugar.
To bring popovers to your holiday feast (and the feasts that follow thereafter!), we offer our Challenge Dairy Popover recipe, as well as a few tips:
Measure carefully
Measuring flour accurately makes a dramatic difference in the texture of the final popover. Spoon flour into the measuring cup and gently level it off. Do not tamp the flour down. If desired, sift or pulse the flour for a few seconds in a food processor before measuring by the spoon-and-level method.
Less is more
There’s no need to use a fancy popover pan to bake popovers, but we do recommend baking in two six-cup muffin pans rather than a single twelve-cup pan to allow greater airflow between the cups.
Leave it be
Don’t peek into the oven before the oven timer goes off. Doing so can cause your popovers to fall prematurely.
Consume quickly
There’s no need to let a popover cool in the pan – it will never be as puffed or beautiful as when it first emerges from the oven, so serve immediately.
Try it tomorrow
Though a popover is never as good as when it first emerges from the oven, those from our recipe hold up remarkably well even a day or two after they’re baked. Save your leftovers for breakfast or even filled with shredded turkey and cranberry sauce for lunch.
