Popovers

It is surprising how many foods can be made using a few basic ingredients!  More impressive is some of these very simple foods look a lot more complicated than they are.  I am always on the look-out for quick, easy recipes using few ingredients for those times I want something a bit different but still using basic ingredients that I have on hand all the time.   The best place to look for recipes using basic ingredients are older cookbooks especially those from the Depression era.  I came across a recipe for popovers, a type of dinner bread.  This recipe uses 4 very basic ingredients but tastes and looks a lot more complicated.

Popovers get their name from their spectacular appearance while baking.  When the batter is baking it literally pops up and over the baking cup giving popovers a unique but characteristic look.  The popover batter can be baked as is for plain popovers or baked in the meat drippings where it is known as Yorkshire pudding.  Despite the looks these delectable, chewy treats are ever so easy to make.

Popovers
modified from:  Betty Crocker's Cookbook (1969), Pp. 50.

2 eggs
1 c milk
1 c unbleached flour
½ tsp sea salt

Heat oven to 230ºC (450ºF).  Grease 6 custard cups or large muffin tins.  Crack eggs then place in stand mixer bowl and beat about 30 seconds.  Stir in milk, flour, and salt.  Beat until just smooth but don't over beat. Fill cups ¾ full.  Bake  25 minutes.  Lower temperature to 180ºC (350ºF) and bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until deep golden brown.  Remove from pan and serve hot.

The night before we went to get our bulk beef purchase (beef on the hoof) for this year we grilled the last two steaks from last year's purchase.  I was actually quite impressed as they were the only remaining pieces of beef in our freezers so I would not have to worry about mixing any old beef with the new.

I served the popovers with the grilled blade steaks, oven baked new potatoes and left-over imitation crabmeat salad.  It was a simple, easy to make dinner with little prep work.  The popovers got rave reviews.  They are ideal for sopping up meat juices according to my husband.  The popovers have a wonderful outer crust with chewy insides so they are quite different than your normal dinner bread.  They will definitely be appearing at more meals here!