Perfect puffs

Many years ago, when the earth was still cooling, dinosaurs roamed the hills, and I was but a wee lad, Mom made us popovers for dinner.  It didn't happen for every meal, but my brother and I requested them often, and as we grew older, Mom realized that a single batch was no longer enough.  We'd start to load our plates for dinner by grabbing two or three popovers each, quickly spotting the largest ones.  It became an unofficial, undeclared contest to see who could eat more, and that was usually determined by who got the last one.

Popovers are light, fluffy, cloud-like rolls, usually hollow inside.  I liked to put butter, jelly, or warm applesauce into their cavernous interiors before I ate them, but they're so good on their own that I had just as many plain.

A couple years ago, my aunt sent me an envelope full of recipes she'd gotten from Mom, written in Mom's hand.  One of them was for herb-cheese popovers.  Wow.

The Chief Taster loves popovers, too, though I've never seen her eat more than three for a meal, and that was only once or twice.  The batch size for the recipe I favor is about nine, and it's an act of great effort for me to not devour the rest myself.  Instead, I eat the last four or five from the batch over the course of the next day, for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

They're pretty handy, because they have only four ingredients (for the base version), which are usually in the kitchen anyway: eggs, milk, flour, and salt.  If my plan for dinner is a little thin, and it needs some bread, it's a breeze to add popovers to the menu.  I've gotten pretty good at baking them over a wide range of temperatures, in case I have something else in the oven which may be more finicky.

Today, I'm going to stick to Mom's Herb Cheese Popovers, even though I don't remember her ever making them.  I only remember the bare-bones popovers, but they're both really good, and they make me happy, and I like that this recipe, in Mom's handwriting, is now in my file.

2 eggs
1 C milk
1 C flour
1/2 C grated sharp cheddar (I've used a couple different cheeses, including feta)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t dried thyme
1/4 t dried sage
1/4 t dried basil

• Generously grease a muffin pan.  You'll have to find out on your own how many cups (of the muffin pan) you need; this recipe only takes up 9 in mine, but your muffins may be a different size than mine.  I've also heard of popover pans, but mine aren't that specialized.  They do it all.  Muffins, cupcakes, popovers, eggs, whatever.  Anyway--only grease the cups you need.
• Crack the eggs into a medium bowl and beat them a little.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix to combine.  The batter may be a little lumpy.  No worries.  Pour it into the greased cups, getting each one about 2/3 full.
• Put the rack in the lower third of a cold oven, stick in your popover pan, and set the temperature at 450F.  Bake 30 minutes without opening door.
• Remove from oven, and use a butter knife to flip them from the cups.

There's a bite mark because I couldn't wait until after I took the picture.

I've kept some of Mom's directions here (I like heating the oven once the popovers are in there, because it means it's ok to forget to preheat, and the popovers can be a late addition to the party, if needed), but I changed some and removed others (her writing recommended piercing them after 30 minutes of baking to let steam escape and returning them to the oven to dry for about 10 minutes.  I don't remember her ever doing that, and I haven't, either).

If you want to make "normal" popovers, the recipe I usually use has three differences from the one above:

1. No herbs and cheese.
2. Preheat the oven to 450F.  Put the greased pan in the oven for about 5 minutes.  This is conveniently the same amount of time it takes to make the batter.
3. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325F and bake another 10 to 15 minutes.

In either case, you're done when they look golden-brown and delicious.