Popovers!

Popovers make me think of Little Women.  Remember when the girls take their delicious Christmas breakfast to their poor starving neighbors?  No?  Well, anyway, I had never eaten a popover until our trip to Washington DC last fall.  We had dinner at BLT Steak on our first evening there.  They served these crazy delicious popovers with our meal, and, after the dessert dishes had been cleared away, gifted us with small bag containing 2 more AND the recipe!  How awesome!   

I just got around to trying the recipe yesterday.  We don't own a popover pan, so I substituted with some oven safe custard cups on a sheet pan.  It worked out well, but I may pick up a pan in the future.  I was surprised by how well these turned out.  They were very close to what we had at BLT.  The ingredients and procedure are both very simple, but the outcome just seems so...magical.  As they bake, the steam trapped inside causes them to puff up and pop over the top (hence the name).  Please keep in mind that I cut the following recipe in half, and still had batter left over.  Plan accordingly!

BLT Steak Popovers (makes 12)

4c milk
8 eggs
4c flour
1.5 T salt
2c grated Gruyere cheese

Place the popover pan (or oven safe custard cups on a baking sheet) in the oven, and heat the oven and pan to 350.  Gently warm the milk over low heat and set aside.  Whist the eggs until frothy, and slowly whisk in the milk (be careful not to cook the eggs!).  Set the mixture aside.  Sift the flour with the salt.  Slowly add this dry mixture and gently combine until mostly smooth.

Once combined, remove the popover pan from the oven and spray with non-stick vegetable spray.  While the batter is still slightly warm or at room temperature (not cold!), fill each popover cup 3/4 full.  Top each popover with approximately 2.5T of cheese. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes, rotating the pan half a turn after 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and serve immediately with soft butter.