Julia Child's Popovers A Classic Recipe Made Easy (2024)

FAQs

What makes a popover rise? ›

Steam is the engine that makes them rise — and rise, and rise! Thus it's important that your popover batter is very thin, signaling there's enough liquid to produce the requisite amount of steam necessary for perfect popping.

If you are having problems with popovers not popping, try decreasing your flour or adding an egg if you have already tried all the other tricks and you are sure that, like me, you are doing everything right.

Cooking fat: Yorkshire pudding is a dripping pudding, meaning that chefs traditionally make it using the meat drippings leftover from cooking a Sunday roast dinner. Meanwhile, popover recipes tend to call for butter instead. Yorkshire pudding batter, therefore, takes on a more savory flavor than popover batter.

When these airy baked goods aren't cooked enough, too much steam stays trapped inside. That moisture condenses once they're removed from the oven, causing them to collapse.

Because popovers rely on steam to rise — as opposed to baking powder, baking soda, or yeast — you want your batter warm when entering the oven. This King Arthur Flour article says it best: “The warmer your batter going into the oven, the more quickly it'll produce steam: simple as that.” Use room-temperature eggs.

There's just one thing that will make the popovers better, and that's time. The batter needs time to rest before baking so that it creates a more tender popover in the end. So, cover the batter and pop it into the refrigerator for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.

Reduce the Heat and Continue Baking: Still without opening the oven, reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes. Now you can open the oven door and check the popovers. Finished popovers will be golden-brown, feel dry to the touch, and sound hollow when tapped.

The batter should be easily pourable and relatively liquidy—if it isn't, you may want to strain. Otherwise, mixing the batter is the simplest part of the process! A popover pan should be greased. I prefer to use melted butter, but oil or nonstick spray would work too.

If you don't want your beautiful popovers to collapse, simply use a sharp paring knife and pierce the bottom of the hot popovers to allow steam to escape and place them on a cooling rack. Do not let them cool in the pan, they'll lose their shape.

Yorkshire Pudding/ Popovers

Yorkshire Puddings are a staple in England with a Roast Dinner. Here in the US we know them as Popovers which are the same thing as the modern Yorkshire Pudding, except using a different pan.

What is an American popover? ›

The popover is an American version of Yorkshire pudding and similar batter puddings made in England since the 17th century, The oldest known reference to popovers dates to 1850. The first cookbook to print a recipe for popovers was in 1876.

If you add more flour, the batter will be heavier and the popovers won't rise quite as high. The lower the rise, the more dense the bread filling and the smaller the hollow center.

How to make popovers. Before we get started: all of your ingredients should be at warm room temperature. To warm ice-cold eggs from the fridge, place them in a cup of hot tap water for about 10 minutes.

You can make the batter ahead of time and bake the popovers the next day or prepare a batch start to finish and freeze them for later or keep a few on your counter. Check out the tips below to keep your popovers fresh. To make ahead: You can make the batter and refrigerate it for up to one day before baking.

Make-Ahead: These are meant to be eaten as soon as they are baked, but they can be made up to 1 day ahead of time. Reheat them before serving. How to Reheat: Place the desired number of popovers on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven at 350° for 3-4 minutes or until hot.

There can be a few different things that can mess up the rise of popovers. Preheat the oven to 425 with the pan preheating in the oven. When baking don't open it again until they're done. If you open the oven door the temperature inside can drop too quickly and the popovers will not rise properly.

The cookie sheet will shield popovers' tops from direct heat. If you plan on serving the popovers immediately, remove them from the oven, and stick the tip of a knife into the top of each, to release steam and help prevent sogginess.

Popovers are like little balloons. An elastic network of egg, milk, and flour proteins (particularly gluten) forms as the popover batter is mixed. This rubbery network then “inflates” as air trapped inside the batter expands during baking.

When you add yeast to water and flour to create dough, it eats up the sugars in the flour and excretes carbon dioxide gas and ethanol — this process is called fermentation. The gluten in the dough traps the carbon dioxide gas, preventing it from escaping. The only place for it to go is up, and so the bread rises.