Spicy Petite Popovers

Few month ago I made rosemary popovers and both of us liked them. I made them again with various herbs and flavors. When I made those popovers, I bought a Nordic Ware petite popover pan. Today’s recipe came with that pan. I made this recipe couple of weekends ago when my 4 year old nephew, master A visited us. In fact he was my little helper in the kitchen that morning. That day I under baked the popovers, yet he seemed to have liked them. 4-5 days ago when he visited me again for dinner, first thing he asked me was if we can make popovers ago? Now that I figured out the right bake time, we are going to have a popover party next time master A visits me again! 🙂

The original full recipe required baking the popovers in two batches yielding 24 petite popovers. I made ½ the recipe. The first time I made them for my nephew, I baked for 20 minutes and they were undercooked. Undercooked popovers deflate as soon as they come out of the oven. Second time I baked for 23 minutes and turned out perfect. Popovers look firm on the outside and hallow in the inside. Also each popover takes up a different shape after rising. You must have noticed various shaped popovers in the pictures.

The first time around, though the popovers tasted good, they were a little bland. We ate them with some tomato chutney. So today I added some pepper powder to spice it up and did not need any chutney or butter. These were my breakfast this morning with a glass of orange juice.

Source: Nordic Ware Recipe
Total Time: 33 minutes
Preparation: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 23 minutes
Yields: 12 petite/mini popovers

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs
• ⅔ cups All-Purpose Flour
• ⅔ cups Milk (I used 1% milk)
• 2 tbsp. Unsalted Butter, melted
• ¼ - ½ tsp. Salt (I used a little less than ½ tsp. Salt)
• ⅛ tsp. Black Pepper Powder (for milder taste, use a dash of pepper)

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 400F.
• Grease the pan and set aside. I used cooking spray to grease the pan.
• In a medium bowl, mix together all the ingredients to form a smooth batter.
• Fill each well/cup of the pan with batter up to ⅔rd level. Do not fill more than that. If using a muffin pan, fill up to ½ level and no more than that.
• Place the popover pan in a baking sheet. In case the batter pops over the pan, the spillage will be collected in the baking sheet.
• Bake in a preheated oven on medium rack for 20 – 23 minutes until popovers are golden brown. I baked for 23 minutes.
• Transfer the popovers to a cooling rack and let cool.

Suggestions:

• Add some herbs of your choice for a different flavor and may be even some cheese. Green chilies & cilantro would be a combination to spice up these popovers.

Events: This goes to Bake Fest #38, an even initiated by Vardhini. This is also my entry for this week's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge and today's post for Bake-a-thon 2014.