Popovers on the Fly
I went to Chestertown this weekend to spend sometime at Washington College, and with my grandmother, and (of course) for my father's birthday!
I decided to spend the night with my grandmother, to keep her company, and to have my own space.
After a late night of chatting, I woke up to discuss the schedule for the day, and the meals for the day! As we decided on scrambled eggs (which she offered to make, but I realized that would be painful to watch), my mother called the house. She told me that my grandmother had been asking everyone if they knew how to make popovers. My grandfather, the southern man that he was, had made them every Sunday since they had been married, and she was lost without them (the popovers, mind you...).
So, it was up to me, and the Joy of Cooking, to get this to be another Sunday of popovers. I was a little nervous, since I know a few times I made them they turned out great, and others were classified as "non-pop overs."
I knew that the oven temperature and the ingredient temperatures were always the trick.
I got out the cookbook, which lectured me on just those facts. Great. It called for ingredients all to be 75 degrees. Yeah. Not going to happen.
I melted 1 T of butter in the microwave and attempted to find a mixing bowl and muffin tins. I buttered up the tins, about 10 cups. I added 1 cup of milk to a bowl along with the hot butter (which I probably shouldn't have done since it curdled, but I didn't care...). I realized, in my family, there is NO WAY there is only 1 T of butter in popovers, so I added another 1/2T, but didn't melt it.
I added 1 cup of flour and 1/4t (not measured) of salt. Then, individually mixing, I added 2 eggs. Immediately, "Joy" said add these to the muffin pan and throw into a 450 degree oven. I poured the tins 3/4 of the way full, and added 1 T of water to each of the empty tins on my set of 12.
We baked the popovers for 20 minutes at 450, turned the oven down (WITHOUT OPENING IT, EVER!) to 350 to finish cooking them for 15 minutes.
I pulled them out and layered on the butter to serve. I actually like turning them upside down and layering the butter on the inside, like a cup.
My grandmother still thought there wasn't enough butter. And imagined that my grandfather had always used 1/2 a stick!
I decided to spend the night with my grandmother, to keep her company, and to have my own space.
After a late night of chatting, I woke up to discuss the schedule for the day, and the meals for the day! As we decided on scrambled eggs (which she offered to make, but I realized that would be painful to watch), my mother called the house. She told me that my grandmother had been asking everyone if they knew how to make popovers. My grandfather, the southern man that he was, had made them every Sunday since they had been married, and she was lost without them (the popovers, mind you...).
I knew that the oven temperature and the ingredient temperatures were always the trick.
I got out the cookbook, which lectured me on just those facts. Great. It called for ingredients all to be 75 degrees. Yeah. Not going to happen.
I melted 1 T of butter in the microwave and attempted to find a mixing bowl and muffin tins. I buttered up the tins, about 10 cups. I added 1 cup of milk to a bowl along with the hot butter (which I probably shouldn't have done since it curdled, but I didn't care...). I realized, in my family, there is NO WAY there is only 1 T of butter in popovers, so I added another 1/2T, but didn't melt it.
I added 1 cup of flour and 1/4t (not measured) of salt. Then, individually mixing, I added 2 eggs. Immediately, "Joy" said add these to the muffin pan and throw into a 450 degree oven. I poured the tins 3/4 of the way full, and added 1 T of water to each of the empty tins on my set of 12.
We baked the popovers for 20 minutes at 450, turned the oven down (WITHOUT OPENING IT, EVER!) to 350 to finish cooking them for 15 minutes.
I pulled them out and layered on the butter to serve. I actually like turning them upside down and layering the butter on the inside, like a cup.
My grandmother still thought there wasn't enough butter. And imagined that my grandfather had always used 1/2 a stick!
Comments