putting the “pop” back in popovers
Hi there! I hope you all had an amazing summer and are enjoying this fabulous fall season. While I was away, I spent two months playing mad scientist in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. This involved lots of science, seafood and… popovers! For some reason I just can’t understand, California has yet to embrace the utter awesomeness that is popovers. So when this California girl met these bad boys at a little place called Pie in the Sky, it was love at first sight.
I ate popovers like there was no tomorrow. Popovers with my coffee. Popover sandwiches for lunch. Even popovers at 4 a.m., fresh from the oven. I was addicted, and when I returned home, there was a giant, popover-shaped hole in my life. There was only one thing to do — start baking my own popovers! Unfortunately, baking popovers is notoriously tricky. After several attempts, my popovers are still inconsistent and don’t have quite the “pop” I’m looking for.
The first few batches I cooked at my parents’ house (left) weren’t too shabby. But when I tried again in my own oven (right), the popovers were doughy and mishapen. So began my quest for the perfect popover.
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. As with most baked goods, the success of this process comes down to two primary factors: mixing and heat.
Mixing is important for more than simply blending ingredients together — it promotes the formation of elastic protein/gluten networks and incorporates air into the batter. There is something of a sweet spot when it comes to mixing popover batter. While Harold McGee advises vigorous beating, Betty Crocker warns not to overmix. Talk about mixed messages! Lucky for us, someone has already tested several different mixing methods side-by-side. While a standing mixer will give passable results, a little elbow grease and a good old fashioned wire whisk works like a charm. And don’t even think about putting that batter in a blender unless you prefer dense, doughy blobs of popover death.
Even if you’ve managed to perfectly mix your batter, you might as well say goodbye to perfect popovers if you don’t have a piping hot oven. Heat produces the steam that inflates the popovers as they bake, so less heat can mean underinflated popovers. But there’s another reason heat is key. Remember my sad, concave popovers? My oven wasn’t hot enough to seal the steam inside the popovers. To avoid this problem, it’s important to set the surfaces of the popover batter as quickly as possible. This is why recipes will often call for preheated or even cast iron popover pans.
With all of this new information in hand, I’ll continue on my quest for the perfect popover. Fingers crossed for the next batch!
