Popovers

For my office holiday gift swap I got a whole bunch of goodies, including a popover pan.  To be quite honest, I don't think I had actually had a popover before, but I always wanted to try making them.  And in one of my favorite movies My Blue Heaven there's a funny scene where Steve Martin (as a mobster sent to the burbs as part of the witness protection agency) is out with friends and grabs something from the bread basket.  He asks "What the frig is this?" and his answer comes from William Hickey (in a voice only he can do) saying "it's a pahpovah".  My description of this scene doesn't nearly do justice to the hilarity of this film.  If you haven't seen it, you should - it's classic Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, and Joan Cusack.

What I like about popovers is that you don't have to decide in advance to make them, like with cinnamon rolls or other baked breakfast treats.  They take less than an hour to make (30min of which is cooking time).  And there isn't a ton of clean-up after (a bowl, the pan, utensils, not much else).  It's a nice treat to enjoy on a weekend morning with your coffee.

The first time I made them, I just kept them plain, but the next time I added a cinnamon-sugar mix to the top to give it a little something extra.  One thing to note - the original recipe says that it makes 12 popovers, so I halved it since my pan makes 6.  It turns out, I must have a jumbo pan or something because when I halved the recipe I only ended up with 3!  The next time I made the whole recipe and came away with 6 yummy popovers.

Popovers (recipe by Mark Bittman)

Ingredients
1 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions   

- Heat the oven to 425.  Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or a popover tin and put it in the oven while you make the batter.
- Beat together the eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and salt.  Beat in the flour a little bit at a time; the mixture should be smooth.  Fill the tins at least halfway (if you have a large tin, this might make less than 12 popovers).
- Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 and continue baking for 15 minutes more, or until the popovers are puffed and browned (do not check the popovers until they have baked for a total of 30 min).  Remove from the pan immediately and serve hot.


***My addition - to top them with cinnamon-sugar, let the popovers cool slightly, brush the tops with melted butter and then sprinkle them with pre-made cinnamon-sugar, or in a shallow dish, combine 2 tbsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar until well mixed and roll the tops of the popovers in the mix.