I opened the old recipe box again and was so excited to find a popover recipe. I have always heard how difficult making popovers was, but my Great Grandmother’s recipe did not fit into that category. I believe I may have found The Best Popover Recipe. I have made these babies several times and not only are they incredibly easy, they turn out every single time.
So what is a popover? In case you are curious, a popover is a light hollow roll made from a thin egg batter. They remind me of German pancakes. They are crispy on the outside, but soft and dense in the inside. They have a buttery flavor and are best served hot from the oven. I like to spread a little jam on mine but the flavoring options are endless.
This recipe uses simple ingredients that are always in my kitchen. Eggs, milk, flour, salt and butter. The only thing that I didn’t have and had to borrow was a popover pan. They look like this.
We had to return the pan after having it for 3 weeks, and I am missing it already. These pans have deep, tapered cups set apart to promote proper air circulation and efficient baking. I bet they have these pans at places like Walmart. I heard you can try making them in muffin tins and that it will work, just not as good, but I haven’t actually tried doing it that way myself.
Okay, enough chit chat, you ready to find out how to make the best popover recipe in your life?
1900’s Vintage Popovers Recipe
First you will want to place your popover pan on the oven rack on the lowest position. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees with popover pan in oven.
Next you will make the popover batter. Mix 2 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, dash of salt, and 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Beat with hand mixer or whisk, and mix until the batter is smooth and has little air bubbles on the surface.
Once oven is preheated, pull out popover pan and coat with cooking spray. Add the batter into the hot pan about 3/4 full. Put pan back in oven and bake for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes. Take pan out of oven, and take a second or two to swoon over the beauty of these popovers. They are so pretty!
Popovers lose that crunchy outer shell if they sit in the pan too long so stop staring at the beauty and make sure to dump them out onto a cooling rack right away. Then poke a hole in the bottom or side of each popover with a small knife to let the steam escape. Serve immediately. They are best right out of the oven. Like I said earlier, I like it best with jam. Mmmmm… so good!
This recipe only made 4 popovers…. super annoying since a popover pan has 6 cups. I fixed this problem by tripling the recipe and making 2 batches and it worked out perfectly. Tripling the batter made the perfect amount for 12 popovers. Problem solved.
I hope you try to make a batch of my Great Grandmother’s popovers, especially if you have never tried a popover before. I have added the recipe below. Happy baking!
Vintage popovers recipe from 1900's recipe box
Equipment
- Popover Pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees with popover pan in oven.
- Beat eggs, add milk together. Add in melted butter.
- Sift flour and salt together and add it to the wet ingredients. Beat until smooth.
- Once oven is pre-heated, remove hot pan from oven, grease popover pan or muffin tins with cooking spray, and fill 2/3 full.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
If you don’t have a pan, use small flower pots. Clean them with bleach, grease them, ready to go.
Glass or terra cotta work.
Followed the recipe to the T. They didn’t pop, and were more like a muffin full of dough inside.
Ill6stick to my original recipe.
All ingredients must be warm!
My German friend has said that it is actually best to leave eggs out overnight to come to room temp THEN use – they POP every. time.
I have wanted Popovers for the longest time. I thought it would be a difficult recipe. I even tried to get our favorite restaurant to make them but, nothing came out of that idea. So ,I bravely made them yesterday. Not only a very easy recipe but,delicious. I made them again today yummy ?
Is it ok to put cheese or cooked sausage in the recipe or the bottom of the pans? If I put it in the bottom of the pans will it cook into the batter, or just stay and burn at the bottom?
Oh man,
I’m not sure! If you try it and it doesn’t burn come back and let me know!
yes, as long as the meat is warm and not too big. In fact, you may try to chop in morsels and mix in batter. Also as others mentioned, the cooking time can be shorter especially if using muffin pans. I make steak or porkbelly beforehand for drippings and add a slab of butter to line my pans. Be sure the oven is superhot and try not to keep the door open for too long. The additional 1/4 milk will help rise too.
Lastly… my holiday twist is replacing milk with 3/4 cup egg nog for delicious eggnog popovers! You gotta try it!
I made these just now and they were delicious. There are just a couple things to note: firstly, mine were fully baked after the 20 minutes at 450, I did not need to put them in for the additional 15, so I suggest checking them after those first 20 minutes so you don’t burn them. Also the nutrition facts make it look like the recipe only makes 4, but I got 11 large popovers out of it and I could have gotten a dozen if not for the fact that I overfilled the muffin tins a bit.
Karen,
It was the same for me! I tripled the recipe thinking it would be enough for 12 popovers but I got 24 large popovers with batter leftover. I added fresh nutmeg and made blackberry jam to go with them. Happy dance!
Isn’t there a sweet version of this? I’m thinking I used to fill them w custard or pastry cream, and then drizzle chocolate sauce over them. Am I recalling correctly that this recipe is also used for eclairs or something similar. Been a few decades since I made them so cannot recall. Thanks for the recipe.
Cream Puffs and Eclairs are made with choux paste. A different recipe and method of baking 🙂
My Dad when growing up would have the leftovers for breakfast the next day covered in golden syrup. i think Nanna probably warmed them, really they are similar to a pancake recipe so a good start to fill empty bellies. My Mum’s were a bit stodgy but I followed the Delia recipe and it is wonderful.
Thank You for the great recipes!
Do you have to do anything different for high altitude? I’m at 7500 ft Above sea level.
I’m a bit disappointed that people rated this recipe high before even making them. I was searching for my go to written recipe to make these for brunch and could not locate it. I found this one, and from memory it seemed similar to my written one. I was wrong. They didn’t rise and were very dense. Not the way a true popover should be. When I finally located my written recipe I realized the milk measurement was different by 1/4 of a cup. Apparently that makes a big difference. So when you finally do make this I suggest adding 1/4 c to the milk.
Don’t do even amounts of flour and milk. I would go with a heaping tablespoon less than one cup of flour.
LOL Maybe our Nans knew each other because this is identical to hers which I have been making for some 50 years. The only difference is we cut a cross in the top with kitchen sheers (akes a great way to add butter gravy or even jam. (my hubby fills them with the mashed potatoes gravy and meat we have them with)
I found a popover pan at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore when we were there to get some parts for a bathroom remodel. I have a newfound love of popovers. This recipe has just slightly different proportions than the one on the box; I think I’ll being trying it tonight. I’ll have to make one change – I’ve got bantams instead of full sized chickens, so I’ll need to use 3 eggs.
If you do not own popover pans can I use muffin tins, and would the cooking time be the
same, please reply to my email, my mom lived in England during the war and rations I would
love to try these!!!! THANKYOU
Yes, you definitely can use muffin tins. I have done it before without a popover pan.
yes, I have been making popovers for almost 50 years in a muffin tin with no problems
My recipe is exactly the same, my big breakthrough was making sure all the ingredients, expecially the eggs and milk were room temperature. (I actually make sure the milk is a little warm) Elevate your recipe by adding in a tea. good dijon mustard and 6-8 small cubes of gruyere cheese.A bit of fresh ground pepper is also optional. OMG! When they come out of the oven grate on a little more gruyere with a fine microplane grater so it melts as it hits the top. PERFECTION!!!!
What a great and delicious idea! I will have to give that a try!
I see that you say the recipe makes only 4 popovers. I figured out a recipe and a half so I could get 6 of them, my popover pan does 6:
3 eggs
1 and 1/2 c. milk
1 and 1/2 c. flour
3/8 tsp sea salt (we actually like more salt than that, so will up it to 1/2 tsp.)
1 and 1/2 T. melted butter
Thanks for doing that! You are so thoughtful!
Self rising or regular flour
Any dietitians out there who can calculate calories? One recipe I saw had 12 eggs! Yikes! Would love to try this one
LOL! The 12 eggs don’t all go into one popover! A standard recipe for popovers — 3 eggs, 1-1/2 c flour, 1-1/2 c milk, a litte salt, a little sugar, and (optionally) some melted butter — makes 6 full-size popovers . . . so figure it out . . . 1 popover = 1/2 egg. That’s 1/6 the amount of egg in the three-egg omelet you might eat alongside the popover. Yikes!
To get the best popovers, use 100% all-purpose flour (or 70% ap flour + 30% high-gluten flour for a bit more structure), and let the batter “rest” in the refrigerator for 1-24 hours to let the gluten relax. You’ll get a better “pop” and the structure will be lighter,
** Few people ever take the temperature of their ovens with a high quality oven thermometer. Most household ovens are so poorly calibrated that they are off by as much as 25-degrees F. (and that’s usually to the low side). So if your popovers are coming out not fully done in 45-50 minutes, your oven is probably “cold”. On the other hand, if they’re burning a bit at 40 minutes, your oven is too hot.
Household ovens with the newer “digital” controls are almost impossible to properly calibrate to perfect temps. My commercial range with two full-size (20×26) ovens was only off by about 10 degrees from the factory. It took a couple of hours to do so in 2008, but it is perfectly calibrated at all temps — and has been for the nearly twelve years I’ve had it in my kitchen.
These look great! I’ve actually never heard of these, but I’ll have to try them. We love finding great recipes to try that will save us money. Plus it’s always great when you have a recipe that’s been passed down, because you KNOW it’s gonna be good! I’ll be pinning this to my recipes to try! Thanks for sharing. 😀
We’ve always baked popovers in those small pyrex glass dishes. You just coat them nicely with shortening, pop them in the oven to hot and pour in the batter. Works every time! I have a popover pan too, but I enjoy the pyrex method better. Just an FYI in case you needed it.
Oh and you can bake it in an 8×8 or 9×9 pan to get a more dense version of the popover. It’s yorkshire pudding without the roast drippings.
Like Yorkshire pudding! 🙂
Oh I wish we were neighbors, I would let you borrow my pan anytime 🙂 My mom used to make those for us as kids, especially on soup nights. I moved out eons ago and when I did she bought me a pan. I make them when I am homesick. Smothered in jam is best the next morning (when at room temp) for a quick breakfast treat!
Thank you for sharing this! I collect old cookbooks (1800s-1970s) and cook old-school all the time. This is not terribly unlike Yorkshire pudding, which is YUM. Will try these popovers this weekend!