Popovers

The first time I made popovers with my kids, about 10 years ago, they were quite impressed with the results. "These are like something you'd get at a fancy breakfast place," the older one exclaimed, though I couldn't recall ever taking him to a fancy breakfast place. Maybe he'd been imagining such an outing. My youngest just said, "'Nuther pop-up please," which was good enough for me.

I'd kind of forgotten about popovers until Saturday night, when I decided to make some to go with a roast beef. Believe it or not, I had never prepared a roast beef before, so I was quite fixated on the details of the big hunk o' meat (it came out quite well, thank you!). When I told my chef friends about the meal, each one of them related a popover horror story, or simply congratulated me on making popovers. And I thought roasting the beef was the tricky part!

So for anyone out there who's afraid of making popovers, here is the world's easiest recipe, from Pretend Soup, a children's cookbook by Mollie Katzen.

Popovers
Makes 11 or 12

2 T. melted butter
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brush the insides of 12 muffin cups with the melted butter.

Mix the milk and eggs together with a whisk in a large bowl. Add the flour and salt and whisk until combined; it doesn't have to be perfect.

Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to pour the batter into each muffin cup. Bake for 30 minutes WITHOUT OPENING THE OVEN DOOR!

Take the pans out of the oven and pierce each popover with a fork to let the steam escape. In a minute or two, gently loosen the popover from the muffin cup and serve with butter, jam or syrup.