Popovers
Charlie saw Mark Bittman's recipe in the New York Times on December 18, 2009, for Beefless Yorkshire Pudding. The American name for Yorkshire Pudding is … popovers. Charlie's mother made them pretty often when he was young. He has made these many times since finding the New York Times article. However, he has modified the recipe to work in mile high Albuquerque. See notes about what he changed at the end. We often make a half recipe. Charlie got a popover pan from Amazon. It has cups that are thinner than a muffin tin, like half the diameter. This works very well. But a muffin pan will work also.You'll start with ingredients at room temperature so plan for that.So, here's how Charlie makes Albuquerque Yorkshire Pudding. Note that while they look like they might be bready, they are more eggy than floury. A bit like crispy crepes.
Servings 18
Ingredients
- 5 T melted butter
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- The ingredients should be at room temperature. If you forgot to set them out earlier, you can put the milk in a jar and then put the jar and the eggs in warm water to warm them up quickly.
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Put the popover pan in the oven to heat it.
- Microwave the butter to melt it. Be careful not to let it burn; it doesn't take long.
- Beat together the eggs, milk, 1 tablespoon of the melted butter, sugar, and salt.
- Beat in the flour a little at a time.
- Remove the popover pan from the oven. Spoon the rest of the butter into each cup of the popover pan, dividing the butter equally.
- Divide the batter evenly among the cups. Work quickly so pan doesn't cool off. Be sure not to overfill the cups: big cups, 1/3 full at most, and thin cups, 1/2 full. A full recipe makes about 18 popovers if you are careful not to overfill the cups. It is much better to have more fluffy ones than overfill and have fewer flat ones.
- Once you've filled the cups with batter, immediately put the pan back into the oven.
- Bake for 15 or 20 minutes until done. They should be nicely browned.
Notes
Charlie said: If I do all these things, they never fail to “pop over” and rise way over the top of the cups.
Here’s the original New York Times recipe.
Here’s a PDF copy of the New York Times recipe.
Things Charlie said about how he changed the original recipe:
I changed the New York Times recipe for the higher altitude in Albuquerque, that is, more liquid. Four eggs instead of two, 1-1/4 cups of milk instead of 1. This makes a fairly thin batter but it works well. I halved the salt to 1/2 teaspoon since they seemed too salty to me.
The original recipe calls for 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees and then 15 minutes at 350. But I found they burned. I just bake at 425 for 15 or 20 minutes.
The butter burned when I did it New York Times way. I heat the muffin tin to 425 and microwave the butter to melt it. When the batter is ready, spoon a teaspoon of the melted butter into each cup and immediately add the batter. Do all the cups quickly and get them back in the oven.