Popovers - TWD

Sometimes things happen at the right time. Today is my turn, together with the lovely Amy from Bake With Amy,  to host our Tuesdays with Dorie group. We are baking from the wonderful book Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, and the recipe is Popovers. The contributing baker is none other than the great Marion Cunningham. 

This is my first time making popovers, and boy, they are a tough thing to photograph. 

Even if you, like me, had never baked popovers there´s a big chance you had wanted to for a long time. Just looking at a picture of these incredible golden irregular towers of dough makes most of us drool.

And it´s a very well deserved title they hold. A blender, a few ingredients and a while later you´re taking amazingly tall popovers from your oven.

Metamorphosis like this one is what draws me to baking. Such a simple, unassuming looking thing before it goes into the oven, and then boom… the most incredible result!

Like a soufflé, these little things are a bit temperamental. They should go from the oven to the mouth with as little time in between as possible. A few minutes later they start deflating a bit and loose their crisp exterior.

I had mine smeared with butter and honey, a bit of a mess but a delicious one.

The recipe is written exactly as it is in the book, but I will tell you what my personal experience was, since being a novice popover baker, I followed the recipe exactly the first time and then adjusted a few things.

I baked three batches using the same batter. I put the remaining batter in the fridge overnight, like you would for pancakes, and by far, the best batch was the one I baked almost a whole day later. They were less eggy and had more flavor.

I used aluminum cups (not glass) and had a hard time unmolding them, except the ones that had less batter and consequently didn´t rise as much, those popped out easily. I buttered them the first time, double buttered them the second time and used vegetable spray the third time. I have to admit the spray was the winner. That and no more than 1/3 of the cup full of batter.

And, though I didn´t open the oven door the first 25 minutes as instructed, the first batch, which I dutifully baked for 15 to 20 minutes more, came out with an opaque, thicker crust. Not nice. 

The second and third batches I left them only an additional five and ten minutes and they were golden and much better. The interiors were the same each time.

Even though the recipe calls for room tº ingredients, the popovers I baked with cold batter straight from the fridge were perfect.

The recipe can be found at Amy´s blog and here. The rest of the group´s attempt at this recipe can be found here.

  

POPOVERS

from BakingWith Julia, by Dorie Greenspan

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole or 2% milk, at room tº

½ teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, at room tº

2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted

Melted butter, for greasing popover cups

Position a rack on the lowest rung of the oven and preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Butter or spray nine ¾ cup glass custard cups or ten ½ cup muffin cups. If you´re using custard cups, place them on a jelly-roll pan, leaving space between each cup. If you´re using muffin pans, you´ll need to use two 12-hole muffin tins because, to give the popovers ample air circulation, you won´t be filling all of the holes.

Pour al the ingredients into the container of a blender and whirl until smooth. (This can be done in a food processor or in a bowl using a hand-held mixer). Strain the batter if it is at all lumpy.

Baking the popovers: For the custard cups, pour 1/3 of batter into each cup, dividing any extra batter among the cups. For the muffin cups, use ¼ cup of batter for each cup, filling alternate cups in each tin so that every popover has puffing space.

Bake, without opening door, for 25 minutes, until the popovers are puffed, nicely browned, and crisp on the exterior. Turn the tº down to 350ºF and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, to help dry out the interior, which, no matter what you do, will always be a little doughy in the center. (Some people love this part, other pull it out).

Serve immediately.

Storing: Popovers are at their puffiest right out of the oven. You can hold them at room tº for a few minutes, or wrap them airtight, freeze them for up to a month, and reheat them in a 350º F oven for 10 to 15 minutes, and they´ll taste good, but never as good as just baked.