Perfect Popovers

The title of these popovers implies that they are no-fail. Hah! Leave it to me to discover a way to make Imperfect Popovers.  There's got to be a sermon in that, somewhere...

The cook who submitted this recipe indicates that the batter can be poured into custard cups. Well, I have a couple of custard cups, but they are so small, I couldn't imagine a big popover out of such a small cup. So I used my King Arthur Flour popover pan, which is probably as perfect as you can get this side of heaven. Maybe that was my first mistake, I don't know. The cook recommends using room temperature ingredients, and maybe I was too hasty and the ingredients were not warm enough? Aaagh! The agony of not knowing where perfection drops into the realm of everyday imperfection.

So, as you may have guessed by now, the popovers did not pop very much, and were, consequently, more bread-y/muffin-y rather than "pop-y." I shall just have to try again. I take comfort from the story told by the cook, that her own mother had trouble for years, making popovers. Until the cook married a man whose mother made these "perfect" popovers. 

I did not even have the energy to take a picture of the poor-little-popovers-masquerading-as-muffins. All I've got is the batter...

Comments

Post a Comment

I welcome your comments. Please be kind and considerate. Thanks for stopping by!

Popular posts from this blog

Lunchtime Gloop

Image
Remember the first recipe I tried? Submitted by the mother of Astronaut Jessica Meir? Well, the cook behind today's lunch menu is famous, but don't wear yourself out trying to think up names of famous Maine cooks. Easiest recipe in this cookbook? Yes. No-fail? Yes. Going to win culinary awards around the globe? No. But when it comes to comfort food, I'm guessing this might be one of author Stephen King's favorites. I followed Mr. King's recipe exactly. Except where he says to use Franco American Spaghetti. Could not for the life of me find that brand name, so finally bought Campbell's Spaghettios. Got home, looked up Franco American and found that, yes, you guessed it, Campbell's bought out Franco American and kept the Spaghettios. Spaghettios were introduced in 1965. What kid doesn't love those little circular bits of pasta soaking in a tomato and cheese bath? And somehow, according to the writing on the can, they manage to pack 20% of your daily vegeta
Read more

Maine Party Chicken

Image
 As I read the ingredients for this recipe, I had a flashback to my childhood. My parents enjoyed having friends over, and my mother was not a chef by any means, but she would look for recipes that were easy to prepare for a crowd. This is one of the recipes she used to make.  I used to be a can-of-soup cook, like my mom, when a white sauce was called for. But since I learned how to do a bechamel, oh my, there is no going back. Not that there is anything wrong with an easy pop-top cream of mushroom soup once in awhile. It does the trick, and you just tuck this dish in the fridge overnight and do a three-hour bake the next day, which gives you time to focus on putting up party banners, or whatever, for your company. I'm not sure I care for the dried beef in this dish. Awfully salty. But the bacon, when you do a slow bake, smells fantastic for three solid hours. Can you say Anticipation?! I say, when you go big, go easy. Try this recipe for a crowd. You'll be glad you did!
Read more

Dad's Bean Hole Beans

Image
This recipe presented two distinct challenges. Firstly, I live in a parsonage and I'm not likely to receive permission to dig up the lawn just to try my hand at cooking bean hole beans. Secondly, we are now solidly in winter, and even if I had opportunity to dig a hole, it's not the right time of year. So I allowed as how baking the beans in the oven would have to do for now, and we'll see what summer brings. Who knows, maybe the church will want to offer a bean hole bean "suppah" as a fundraiser. The picture shows off pea beans, and yet the recipe calls for yellow-eye beans. I must say, were I pressed to pick a favorite bean recipe, I did so love the Baked Yellow-Eye Beans (see blog). But when it came time to try this recipe, there were no yellow-eye beans in the pantry. So I used pea beans. I do like pea beans, but I have to wonder if these beans were getting a little old. They seemed to take longer to cook. I checked the difference between the Yellow-Eye Bean r
Read more