Pop Over Pan Advice

[Dwayne Henson]

I'm cleaning up a chrome pop over pan. I gotta ask; what is a pop over? For you cooks, do you use the paper cups in these type of pans to bake muffins and such? or do you just pour the batter straight in the cups?  Thanks

[Dwayne Henson]

Top

[maloney108]

I'm gonna kinda wing my answer here, but a popover is a kind of quick bread made with a very eggy batter.  Generally the pans are heated quite hot, some kind of fat (and quite a bit, too) is placed in the cups and then the batter added and baked in a very hot oven.  The popovers really puff up and have a very airy center.  By the way, they're delicious.  I have not made them myself, but I sure have eaten my share.  The Peir 5 restaurant in Boston serves them with every meal.

You don't use any paper liners in the cups.  If your iron is seasoned well and both the pan and fat is hot, the popovers will 'pop' right out without any sticking.  Hot is the key!

I'm too lazy tonight to go look up a recipe, so I hope someone else has more energy than me and can post one.  If nobody has one by tomorrow, I'll probably hunt one up for you.

[Sandy Glenn]

Dwayne, There are two recipes for popovers in the WAGS Cookbook that both sound yummy.  BTW, nice looking pan.  Sandy

[Jeff Friend]

I have made them a few times.  Here is some advice from The Joy of Cooking:

• The batter should be no heavier than whipping cream.  Fill the buttered cups 3/4 full.  Don't overload - too much batter in the cup will give a muffin-like texture.

• Bake at once.  After 15 min, lower the heat, without peeping, to 350F and bake 20 min longer.

• If the popovers have not been cooked long enough, they will collapse.

I usually add about 1 T of sugar to the batter.  Butter compounded with real maple syrup goes great with popovers.

[Dwayne Henson]

Thanks yall. I'll have to try it tomorrow. If it doesn't warm up soon, we'll be inside most of the day anyway :)

[Joel Schiff]

 Dwayne, believe that the precursor of the 'popover' was the venerable English 'Yorkshire Pudding', which was a fair bit larger, but, I believe, of the same type(& apparantly one of the few types of Old English food besides the Beef Wellington, & desserts, that had much interesting character/reputation at all).
 So if you would really like to try making them, would suggest not only using the much older/larger style of the #10 molds, but if you can cadge one, yaffle one of the Favorite 9-cup 'Popover' molds -- which are huge, & should make wonderful Popovers/Yorkshire Puddings.

[Dwayne Henson]

Thanks Joel, I'll have to keep an eye out for those larger ones as well.

[Tom Neitzel]

Here is a series of pictures I took a couple years ago of popover making.  I sometimes make them for company or when the kids are out.  They are very simple to make, just flour, egg and milk, but hot and steamy right from the over are heavenly.  I like using the John Wright Lion and Lamb popover pans.  They take about 35 minutes to make so I use 3 pans at a time to get 18 per batch.  They get eaten very fast when right out of the oven.  A little butter and maybe jam tops them off.

You want a hot oven to start with to kind of set the outer skin, then create the steam inside to puff them quickly before the outer crust sets.  The Joy of Cooking recipe and instructions work very well.

This is a collage of 4 pictures.  The first shows a couple pans filled and ready to go in the oven.  These are a bit smaller than the #10 pans.  They only have about 3 tablespoons of batter in each cup.  Even though the pans are well seasoned, I like to use butter to grease each cup.  It adds a bit of flavor and gives a little color to the popover.  You may want to put in some foil or a pan undernear to catch drips.  Butter may be forced out of the pan as they puff.

The second shows the resulting popovers.  You poke a hole in the top to let the steam out and you take them out of the pan to serve.  Keeps them from getting soft if they have to sit for a bit.

The third shows the animal faces this pan makes.  The lion is on the left, the lamb on the right.

And finally, a picture of the outside of the pan.

I think you could use pretty much any muffin pan that is deeper than it is wide.

The key to me in getting a good popover is starting with a very hot oven.  I don't preheat the pans much, just slightly warm to make sure the butter coats them well.  I actually cool the pans, sometimes in cool water, when making multiple batches.

Tom

[C. Perry Rapier]

Thanks for the pictures Tom, I see everything but the steam comin off of them, they sure do look good, some butter and strawberry jam for me.  ;)

[Jeff Friend]

Tom, those are great pictures.  They really show how the popovers come out of the pan and without leavening - steam does all the work.

[Maynard Stanley Jr]

Nice pictures Tom, I think they sound good plain with butter or maybe filled with coconut cream pudden and then dip the top half in dark chocolate. again thanks for posting,

C I and my wife - both nice to look at and even better when working around the house.

[Tom Penkava]

You've started something now Dwayne.  After looking at your pan and Tom's pictures, had to give these a try.
3 pictures coming up.

[Tom Penkava]

hit the wrong button, here we go

[Tom Penkava]

Done, ready to flip over.

[Tom Penkava]

Ready to serve, but have noticed 1 tiny bit of a problem, some of the popovers have already disappeared and there is only my wife and my mother here with me today.

[maloney108]

Ready to serve, but have noticed 1 tiny bit of a problem, some of the popovers have already disappeared and there is only my wife and my mother here with me today.

Check your ceiling - they look so light and delicious, I think some of them floated away.  [smiley=balloon2.gif]

Great pics, guys - you're making me real hungry.  That honey butter sounds perfect!

[Tom Neitzel]

Tom, you really did good.  Some people think these are difficult to make - let's not let on.  I think I'm going to have to make a practice batch tomorrow just to make sure they work for Christmas.

There are a couple of things I've learned about popovers.  You never have to worry about them getting cold and you can't wait to get the next batch in and cooking.

You can put a teaspoon or so of shredded cheese on the top of the popover batter in each cup.  It won't puff up as much but he cheese will be incorporated into the popover.  My wife really likes those.

Tom

[C. Perry Rapier]

I see honey in some of these postings. Is the honey real high priced in everybodys area? I have noticed that honey is real high priced. Its like the bees is gettin organized.  ;D

[Dwayne Henson]

Mine ain't as pretty as yours, but tasted good. Mine looked sorta like Mushrooms, with a stem and a cap on top. They disappeared anyway. I don't own any other chromed pieces but I sure like this one. The clean up was nothing, just like a well seasoned piece.