Perfect Popovers

Day 290: It's a well-known fact that I don't like to cook. If a meal takes more prep time than five minutes and if it's going to dirty up more than one pan, I can't be bothered. The exception to my avoidance of culinary excursions is baking. If I do say so myself, I'm a good baker. I've been making my own bread for more than forty years, and cookies are the mainstay of my diet. As such, I am no stranger to creating puff pastries such as creampuffs and eclairs, but popovers were a new adventure. Having been introduced to them during a trip to the east coast several years ago, it followed that sooner or later, I'd have to make my own. To that end, I purchased a heavyweight Silverstone popover pan. It arrived today, and here you see the results, minus two which I gobbled while they were still hot.

There are many recipes for popovers on the internet, and about 50% will recommend preheating your oven. I followed "Joy of Cooking," a cookbook which has never let me down. I substituted powdered milk for whole milk (something I never have on hand), buttered each cup and dusted it lightly with confectioner's sugar ("to give the popovers something to stick to," per "Joy"). The recipe said it would make nine, and that proved to be quite accurate. A little less than a quarter cup of batter went in each cup. Every popover rose to crispy perfection and slid right out of the pan. Since I had to have a split one for the photo, I only had six left to put in the freezer for later treats!