MARASH GIRL'S RECIPE FOR POPOVERS: THE WAY TO A MAN'S HEART!

Did you see the recipe for Marash Girl's version of Pier 4 Marinated Mushrooms (Sunday, February 13)?  When my husband read the first draft of that blog post, he reminded me that Pier 4 not only served marinated mushrooms gratis with every meal, but also popovers fresh out of the oven.  And yes, I remembered that in the late 1960's, inspired by Pier 4,I would often prepare popovers, though never for dinner! They were a quick and nutritious (high in protein) breakfast treat.  (In those days I was preparing breakfasts before I left for work, as my husband, who worked at the State House, would have breakfast meetings with his colleagues at our apartment in the servants' quarters of 89 Mt. Vernon St., Beacon Hill, before my work day or his work day began.)

Next day was Valentine's Day, (yes, I know I'm posting this a few days after the fact, but I got carried away with my tales of Egypt, so forgive me!) and, I thought, what a perfect Valentine breakfast popovers would make!  I remembered my recipe -- simple enough -- (You'll see; you'll remember it, too!) --  Wait . . . did I have a popover pan?  I thought I had stored one on the shelf at the bottom of the stairs in our basement . . . Yup, it was where I thought it was, unused for many a year, but it had room for only 6 popovers, and I wanted to make double the recipe.  Okay, I could use some of my mother's custard cups . . .  I remember we used to make popovers in custard cups before popover pans came into vogue -- (While the popovers were cooking,  I checked to see if I could purchase another popover pan, but all I could find was the non-stick variety, to be avoided in cookware unless you want an unknown chemical in your food!)

So here's that easy to remember, easy to prepare recipe for

POPOVERS

Preparation time -- one minute, baking time 30 minutes.
PREHEAT OVEN TO 450 (it'll take about 5 to 10 minutes to get there!)
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have a convection oven, especially a Wolf convection oven, as I do, preheat the oven to 425, and after 20 minutes, turn the oven off and leave the popovers in the oven for another 10 minutes.  HOWEVER, it is best NOT to use the convection oven, bake the popovers for 15 minutes in a regular oven at 450 degrees F., then open the oven door, quickly turn the pan around so all popovers get evenly browned, close the oven door, and turn the oven temperature down to 400 degees F.  Cook for another 15 minutes.  Popovers will pop perfectly. 

To begin:

Preheat oven to 450. Then

stir together

2 large eggs, 1 cup all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur unbleached Flour), 1 cup whole milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt.
(It's best if eggs and flour are at room temperature.)

1. Spray popover pan with PAM or grease the pans by hand, making sure the pan is well oiled. (Do the same if you use custard cups).

2. Stir the eggs, flour, milk and salt together in a bowl with a wire whip (just until blended -- don't over beat --  there will be a few tiny lumps of flour -- leave them).

3. Fill cups to about 2/3 full. (You'll have about 6  popovers, depending on how much you fill the containers.)

[One caution, however. The popovers in the custard cups cook differently and at a different rate than the popovers in the popover pan, so I would recommend using one or the other but not both, or if you want to use both, bake the popover batter which is in the pan first, and the popover batter in the custard cups later.  Easier to control the product that way.]
4. Place pan or custard cups filled 2/3 full with popover batter in oven preheated to 450 degrees; bake for 15  minutes (even though most recipes say 30 minutes), or until tops of popovers have begun to pop and begun to brown, then reduce heat of oven to 400 for another 15 minutes. The outside of the popovers should be golden brown, the inside very moist. Keep a close eye on them.  Be careful not to over cook or under cook this old New England anytime treat!

As you can see (above), I didn't even have a chance to remove the popovers from the oven before one disappeared!

Once you master this  recipe, you may want to experiment by adding herbs, or grated parmesan cheese, or some melted butter, or vanilla and almond flavoring, or 1/4 cup of ww pastry flour (the whole wheat flour makes the dough heavier and the popovers less popped) but start with the tried and true, master that, and then experiment to your heart's content!  (Let me know how yours turn out!)

I served my husband popovers for breakfast on Valentine's Day, and in return . . . look!!!!

Orange roses, my favorite color!  My tried and true LeCreuset enameled iron pots AND (my husband insists on my telling you), the new vacuum he just bought me are a deep orange!