The perfect popover soars to towering heights without the addition of whipped egg whites or leavener for lift—but only if you get the baking magic just right. Skip a step or alter the timing slightly and you’ll have squat, tough, or sunken popovers. Do they have to be this finicky? We aimed to develop a foolproof recipe that would produce tall popovers with a crisp exterior and an airy, custardy interior every time. Since many recipes turned out skimpy popovers, our first move was to double the ingredient amounts found in most recipes so we could fill the cups of the popover pan almost completely.
We tested cake flour, all-purpose flour, and bread flour; because bread flour has the highest protein content of the three, it gave the popovers the strongest structure, and thus the highest rise and most crisp crust. The downside was that it sometimes caused the batter to set up too quickly, which impeded rise. Resting the batter for an hour before baking relaxed the proteins and prevented the popovers from setting up too quickly. Whole milk is traditional, but the fat weighed down our popovers; low-fat milk fixed the problem. Popovers can collapse as they cool, so we poked a hole in the top of each toward the end of baking and then again once they were out of the oven. The small holes enabled the popovers to release the steam slowly and maintain their crispness. Greasing the popover pan with shortening ensures the best release, but vegetable oil spray may be substituted; do not use butter. To monitor the popovers’ progress without opening the oven door, use the oven light.
Ingredients
- Shortening
- 2 cups (11 ounces) bread flour, plus extra for pan
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups warm 1 or 2 percent low-fat milk (110 degrees)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Grease 6-cup popover pan with shortening, then flour pan lightly. Whisk eggs in medium bowl until light and foamy. Slowly whisk in warm milk, melted butter, and sugar until incorporated.
- Whisk flour and salt together in large bowl. Whisk three-quarters of milk mixture into flour mixture until no lumps remain, then whisk in remaining milk mixture.
- Transfer batter to 4-cup liquid measuring cup, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rest for at least 1 hour.
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Whisk batter to recombine, then pour into prepared pan (batter will not reach top of cups). Bake until just beginning to brown, about 20 minutes.
- Without opening oven door, reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and continue to bake until popovers are golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes.
- Poke small hole in top of each popover with skewer and continue to bake until deep golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack, poke popovers again with skewer, and let cool for 2 minutes. Remove popovers from pan and serve warm.
