Popovers- Cute, Delicious, and EASY!!!!!!

       In all honesty, I had never even heard of Popovers before. I saw a couple of cooking shows where they were being made and decided to do some research. In my research I found that they are a makeover of English Yorkshire Pudding, albeit quite different at this point. I also found that they are most popular in the North East and can still commonly be found at local food places in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The recipe can also be found in cookbooks as far back as the early 1800's.
       What is really wonderful about Popovers, outside of the fact that they pop up in such a whimsical and silly fashion, is that they are made from just a few ingredients that even the "non-cook" probably has in their kitchen. They can be both sweet and savory, and topped with anything you can imagine. Some options for sweet flavors: Jam/Jelly, chocolate, syrup, honey, molasses, flavored butters, and even ice cream. If you want to try them savory: you can add cheese and spices into the batter or top with herb butters, gravy, dumplings, stew, and soups.
      I split the batter in half and made 6 plain and 6 with a little garlic salt and grated parmesan cheese. They were both good and I look forward to trying more combinations. This recipe could not be any easier and satisfying and therefore Popovers will be a new favorite in this house. Eternally emotional teenager and eternally hungry husband were both very pleased with the outcome as well!!!

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

1 1/2 Tablespoon of melted butter, plus extra for greasing muffin pan.

1 1/2 cup of flour

3/4 teaspoon of salt

3 eggs at room temperature

1 1/2 cup of milk at room temperature 

****3 VERY IMPORTANT THINGS****

1. Milk and eggs need to be room temp.

2. You must warm the muffin pan first

3. Whatever you do, DO NOT open the oven during cooking

What you need

Place a small dab of butter into each muffin cup

Mix all ingredients together with a whisk (don't over-mix), your batter will be runny. 

Put muffin pan into pre-heated oven for 1 minute, take out and spread melted butter around each muffin cup.

I filled 6 of the muffin cups up with plain batter, then added grated cheese and garlic to batter and filled up the remaining 6 cups.

Fill each muffin cup approx. 3/4 full.

Bake at 425 for 25 minutes. Turn your oven light on to watch them "pop"...but DO NOT open the oven door or they will deflate.

They will turn golden brown and pop up considerably, they will also have a little hole in the center (to fill with yumminess such as jam or honey)

These are delicious right out of the oven!!!