The Biggest Fattest Fluffiest Popover Recipe
The biggest fattest fluffiest popover recipe you'll ever find. These popovers are light and airy, CRAZY easy to make (like you actually won't believe it), and are probably my very favorite vehicle for butter.
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THIS is a bucket list recipe! I have always wanted to make popovers. So I decided to try my hand at making you the biggest fattest fluffiest popover recipe, and I DID IT.
When I made the Biggest Fattest Fluffiest All Butter Biscuits, you guys went a little bit nuts about 'em. I mean really, what's better than big 'ol fluffy carbs? I am with you on that. Giant Cinnamon Rolls were also a hit. This popover recipe is right there in the realm of giant delicious carbs that will make people think you are some kind of baking phenom, but popovers are UNCOMPLICATED. I promise.
This recipe is also a little bit dear to my heart. There's a story attached. Haters of food blog stories feel free to scroll on down.
Anyway. I've been wanting to make popovers FOREVER. They are eggy and intriguing. The insides pull apart in thin, almost spongy layers like magic. They fluff up like nobody's business. And they are probably my most favorite vehicle for butter and homemade blackberry jam.
The Story.
When I was a kid we would drive to southern Illinois to visit my grandparents a few times a year. I loved those trips, and recently made the drive again with my mom. I still love a good road trip, though this most recent one was much less chaotic than the trips of my youth, where my parents would load up a station wagon full of children and dogs, drive all night, and inevitably lose a suitcase somewhere in Indiana.
Anyway, while in Illinois, my dad would always pick a day to drive across the river to St. Louis to visit his brother. Since I'm the oldest kid, he'd take me with him.
Those trips always felt a tiny bit magical. We'd go to the fanciest shopping mall to get a Christmas present for my mom that we definitely COULD NOT afford. (my dad was ever an optimist)
We'd go to the St. Louis Museum of Art and wander for HOURS. I still get goosebumps when I see a painting by Monet.
And on every trip, we'd go to the Zodiac, the restaurant at the top of Neiman Marcus, and eat the biggest, fattest, fluffiest popovers with strawberry butter, in a sea of white table cloths and crystal wine glasses.
It was the fanciest thing I'd ever experienced.
To fully appreciate this story though, we need to talk about how outside the norm all of this was.
My mom was a waitress. And as soon as I was of age, I was, too. My dad worked in sales - mostly car dealerships - and was always trying to catch a break. JUST ONE MORE CAR to hit the sales goal and actually bring home a paycheck. Both of my parents worked crazy long hours and we had zero fancy things. Most days we had just enough groceries for that one day. We always had enough, but just barely.
So going to art museums, and eating in fancy restaurants, and buying gifts that my dad would probably be paying off for the entire rest of the year - it all felt so extraordinary.
That's what popovers are for me. Completely extraordinary.
Making Big Fat Fluffy Popovers is EASY
The thing of it is though, they are NOT extraordinary to make! Popovers require just a few pantry staples.
- eggs
- milk
- salt
- flour
- butter
THAT'S IT!
Hopefully you have most of these things on hand pretty much any day of the week. If you DO need to run out and buy these ingredients though, none will waste away never to be used again like that spice you bought that one time for that thing you found on Pinterest.
Tools Required
You DO need a couple of tools to make this recipe successful, though, and that's as fancy as we will get.
- A good whisk
- this popover pan
Now listen. I am not usually one to tell you to go out and buy a thing. Here at Sugar Dish Me the goal is always easy and requiring just what you have on hand. And you CAN make popovers using a regular muffin tin. But they won't be the biggest fattest fluffiest popovers.
For the popovers to be sky-high, you'll want the pan. Trust.
Elbow Grease
Is that a thing people still say? I feel like it's a grandma phrase. But this recipe calls for some serious whisking, so get your arm muscles ready. Also why is it called elbow grease when your elbow does none of the actual work ?
Whatever you call it, you are gonna wanna get ready to stir.
Bake, Serve, EAT WARM
Whether you are using the recommended popover pan or you are going with a muffin tin, you are going to bake the popovers on higher heat for 20 minutes and then reduce the heat for the last little bit of baking.
In my humble opinion, popovers are best served warm. Carb-lover that I am, I will definitely not turn down a room-temperature baked good, just so we are clear about that. But these big fat fluffy popovers smeared with soft butter and / or sweet jam, will bring you like next-level breakfast-brunch happiness.
Eat Popovers With ...
- I love this cranberry butter, especially in cranberry season! Frozen cranberries work well, too
- Bacon Butter! YEP. There's a scone recipe here, too. But bacon butter is as amazing as it sounds.
- soft butter and a sprinkle of kosher salt. YOU CAN'T BEAT IT.
Other Favorite Big Fat Fluffy Recipes
Does it get any better than fluffy frosted Lofthouse Cut Out Cookies at Christmas? Really these cut out cookies are great any time of year - swap out those cookie cutters and get to decorating.
Homemade Fluffy Pancake Mix is a long-time reader favorite! This tried and true quick mix for pancakes makes mornings easy.
The Biggest Fattest Fluffiest Popover Recipe
The Biggest Fattest Fluffiest Popover Recipe is SO easy! Just a few pantry staples and a really great pan turn out the biggest, fattest, fluffiest popovers ever!
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups milk
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
Instructions
- Warm the eggs by placing them UN-CRACKED in a medium bowl and cover with hot water (as hot as your tap will go). Let them sit for 10 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F and move the oven rack to a low position (to prepare for huge popovers!). Grease the popover pan thoroughly inside each cup as well as around the top edges.
- With your whisk, beat together the eggs, milk and salt until they are combined. The yolks should be completely blended in.
- Add the flour and whisk until the mixture is frothy and all large lumps are gone. Then quickly stir in the melted butter.
- Divide the batter between the prepared popover cups. They should be about ¾ of the way full.
- Bake the popovers for 20 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350°F. Bake for another 10 or 15 minutes. The popovers will be very golden brown.
- My preference is to serve immediately and enjoy them warm!
Notes
- Do not top off the cups! ONE POUR to ¾ full. Topping off can prevent a full rise.
- If you can help it DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN!
- If your popovers are getting dark too quickly, you can move one of your oven racks up to the top and place a baking sheet on it to shield your popovers from the direct heating elements.
- This recipe is based on the popover recipe at King Arthur Flour. I love King Arthur as a resource for recipes, but I also LOVE their products.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 244Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 144mgSodium: 390mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 1gSugar: 0gProtein: 10g
I followed this recipe to a t .... the popovers came out perfectly!
I did invest in a popovers tin, because a muffin tin... just made muffins.
Thank you.
Jennifer
So these are awesome & I had no idea they were so easy to make! I own a dessert shop so I have access to the ingredients every day. This could be dangerous! Some notes: Don't use cake flour, you'll get pop-unders. They were a yum giant dough ball but not fluffy. Also I used my jumbo muffin tin & I love it. I use bakers joy but I still have trouble removing them from the pan.
Thanks!
@Michele, Thanks so much for your story and this recipe. I am from the south so I had never heard of pop overs until my friend from Connecticut made them and I have fallen in love with them and made them ever since. And that was 20 years ago. I usually don't read stories that accompany recipes but yours was really good I'm sure many others are good too, I just never take the time to read them. I'm glad I read yours.
Aw thank you so much, Nicole! I appreciate you. Thank you for reading, and for taking the time to share this with me!
I followed the directions to the letter and even have the popover pan and they DID NOT RISE AT ALL!! They just sat there looking like regular muffins. I have no clue why they did not look like the picture, but it was VERY disappointing!! I don’t understand why you cook it at 450 degrees and then decreased the oven to 350. An electric oven cannot possibly reduce down to 350 quickly and, I assume stays at 450 for at least 5 minutes or so until it slowly decreases the temperature.
Hey Tracey, the slow decrease in oven temperature is the point. Lots of baking (and cooking!) calls for a reduction in temperature halfway through. If your popovers didn't rise you probably didn't whisk hard enough and there wasn't enough air in the batter. You can also try pre-heating the pan.
@Tracey Campbell, I read where it's important to fill the tins with a single pour - to NOT go back and "top them off" like you might do with cupcakes. Someone on a blog I read said that made the difference.
How much HOT water are you supposed to use? And do you use the water the eggs are in ?
The hot water is literally just enough to cover the un-cracked eggs in the bowl so that they come up to room temperature. You don't use the water and you don't need to measure; how much you need depends on the size of your bowl.
Hello! I have made this recipe twice before and they turned out perfect! Then I made them yesterday and they barely rose at all. So today I decided to make again, making sure to follow everything step by step and again they aren't turning out. What could the problem be? I had success before. I use the King Arthur popover pan.
I just made these they are like on steroids. I used 3/4 cup half and half and 3/4 cup milk. I also used an immersion blender to whisk it altogether. They turned out great
I have been making popovers for a year or so, and could never get them right. They were always too heavy and doughy. I just followed your recipe (and I pre-heated my pan with the oven) and they turned out perfect! Thank you!
Thank you so much, Lea!
Just tried these and they looked great in the oven but when they came out they fell and are doughy and heavy. Did I not bake them long enough? I did the 20 at 450 degrees and the 15 at 350.
Was so hopeful...as I've wanted to try for awhile.
Hey Deb - there are so few ingredients here, so I am not sure where to help you troubleshoot. I've never had to preheat the pan but others have had success doing so, so you might try that. The only other thing that I know to check is how seriously you are whisking! All the whisking really fluffs the batter up and is what makes these light and airy on top. I am so sorry you didn't have luck with this recipe! It's a King Arthur Flour recipe that I've made a zillion times and adjusted just a tiny bit, so it is TRULY tried and tested.
My husband and I have struggled for years to make popovers that didn’t go flat. We have tried several recipes with little success. Then we found your recipe and voila! We made three delicious, fluffy batches of perfect popovers over the past couple of weeks. We were so excited that we had finally mastered it. But then...yesterday we tried again and it was a complete fail. We realized after the fact that we had inadvertently used self-rising flour. So we tried another batch with all-purpose flour. Same result. So we thought it might be that the jumbo eggs we were using were too heavy. We tried again with large eggs. We followed the directions exactly, checked the oven temperature, tried unsalted vs. salted butter... No dice. After four flops in a row, we gave up. What could have happened?? Help!
@Jen McLain, I made my first batch of popover last night and they were a wonderful success. I used the King Arthur recipe - which is what this recipe is actually - and had no problems. However, I did read on another person's tips that when you fill the tins with the batter, you do it all in a single pour. Don't go back and "top off" the wells because this somehow affects the rise. Hope this helps. Don't give up!
what do you mean by cover the eggs with hot water? Do you meant put the bowl in another container with hot water?
I mean put the eggs in a bow and add enough hot water to cover them, uncracked and still in the shells, to bring them up to room temperature.
Hi..another reader asked but didn't see reply. Don't you preheat popover pan? I thought this was crucial for successful popovers. Thanks for your thoughts on this point.
This recipe does not require a preheated pan ?
They are great with a prime rib dinner
I am gonna need your prime rib dinner recipe, Stephen!
I have never seen a popover recipe that doesn’t have the pans heated prior to adding the batter, a step most recipes state is crucial to achieve good results. Is it your intention that the batter be added to cool pans? Thanks for the clarification!
these are the best popovers ever and i made them in a muffin pan. they did not fall, were absolutely delish
So glad the muffin pan worked for you!!!
Thank you so much for shar6this recipe. My mom passed away a few years ago & popovers were something she made every Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I never learned how she made them. I've tried several recipes listed online everytime the result was massive failure ending with custard like biscuits. Each time I double checked my measurements & followed the steps exactly. Your recipe was a phenomenal success & very close to moms. Again thank you for sharing & bringing back so many memories.
Thank you so much, Tina! I am so sorry to hear about your mom and I am so glad this recipe connected you to a happy memory! Happy Holidays! - Heather