February 19, 2019 (updated March 6, 2024) by Zoë François | breakfast, How-to, kids, recipe
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The perfect popover is crisp on the outside, tender and airy on the inside and at its very best when served right from the oven. This is a super easy and yet very impressive recipe, that even a first time baker can master and feel like they’ve made magic.
When I was in middle school I lived in Westport, CT and would take the train into NYC to spend the weekend with my late aunt, Melissa. She worked in the film industry and seemed impossibly sophisticated in her fashion and food.
A favorite tradition was having breakfast at Sarabeth’s. We’d order perfect popovers, which were puffed to the heavens and slathered in her homemade marmalade and/or honey butter. They reminded me of the puffy pancakes my friend Sasha and I had made (when we were just tiny kids) in our commune kitchen, but so much more delicious and light.
The short video I made for these popovers is my first YouTube video in quite some time. When you go to my YouTube channel you will find some vintage Zoë, feel free to ignore those, unless you need a good laugh or want some earnest cake decorating advice. The short video was filmed by Charlie at Lilacs Media.
Perfect Popovers
The perfect popover is crisp on the outside, tender and airy on the inside and at its very best when served right from the oven. This is a super easy and yet very impressive recipe, that even a first time baker can master and feel like they've made magic. Recipe is from Sarabeth's Good Morning Cookbook.
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Course: bread
Cuisine: Breakfast
Servings: 6 large or 12 small popovers
Author: Sarabeth Levine
Ingredients
Popovers
- 5 eggs
- 2 cups (480ml) whole milk
- 1 1/2 cups (213g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- Pinch salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract make homemade vanilla
- Softened butter for pan
Honey Butter
- 1/2 stick (57g) unsalted butter softened
- 2 tbsp honey
- Pinch salt
Instructions
Heat oven to 400° F.
Mix all the ingredients in a blender.
Brush butter in each popover cup.
Place pan in oven until butter melts.
Add popover batter to pan, filling the cups about 3/4 of the way to the top.
Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown and puffed.
Reduce heat to 350°F, continue baking 20 minutes until caramel brown and puffed. Bake longer if you are using a large popover pan.
Honey Butter
Mix all together and serve at room temperature.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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I made a few edits to this recipe based on ingredients I had at home. For example, I didn’t have whole milk, so I used 2% milk instead. I also didn’t have all purpose flour, so I used white whole wheat flour from Trader Joes.Finally, I ran out of butter for greasing, so I used plant based butter I had at home for this instead of regular butter. Despite these revisions, the recipe still turned out delicious! Crunchy on the outside and airy and light on the inside, just how I like it! Featured your recipe on my blog today, thanks for sharing!Reply
I’m going to try these tonight! Editorial note: In your “honey butter” section, I think you mean to write “pinch salt” rather than “pinch honey.” Right?Reply
Hi Ann! Yes indeed. Thank you for catching that. It’s fixed now! Please come back and let us know what you think once you’ve tried the recipe!
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I love popovers and would like to make these. I don’t have a popover pan, can I use a regular muffin pan?
Thank you !Reply
Hi Julie! You can use a regular muffin pan, but the shape of the popovers will be rounder — not the classic popover shape.
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Julie, FYI, Nordic Ware makes an awesome popover pan if you ever want one! Tall & thin and plenty of room between for the puffy to happen.
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These are very tasty, and perfect for an indulgent and impressive brunch! The flavor was spot on, but there were a few small issues I had with the recipe. I weighed all my ingredients, as I always do, yet when I went to fill my standard 6-cup popover pan 3/4 of the way full, there was SO much batter left over! I ended up filling them to the very top and placing the popover pan on top of a sheet pan to catch any spillage. I just baked the leftovers after the first batch came out. I then had to bake the very full popovers quite a bit longer. When I make these again, I’ll just aim to fill them 3/4 of the way full, as instructed, and bake another pan after the first is done. Overall a great recipe with just a few small errors!Reply
