I'd never made popovers, and had only eaten them once, when I received a popover pan for Christmas one year. I decided to try it out with Martha Stewart's Popovers.
As a baked good, popovers are magical. Just 4 ingredients - eggs, milk, flour, and salt - transform from a liquidy batter to a hollow roll, doubling in size.
Milk and flour are pretty mild ingredients, and given the high egg content, popovers taste a little eggy. But it's the magic of the eggs that bind with the rest of the ingredients and make them puff up and rise like balloons, trying to escape their pan.
Another benefit: popovers only take 10 minutes to whisk together, which is more quickly than your oven preheats! You'll change the oven's temperature halfway through baking, but otherwise that's 40 minutes of almost hands-off bake time, which makes it perfect to stick in the oven right before company arrives.
According to Wikipedia, popovers are an American cousin of Yorkshire pudding, another dish I've never tried. Given that British Yorkshire pudding is served with gravy, I tend to make meaty stews to go along with popovers, but we tend to eat the leftovers with jam or hazelnut spread.
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Ingredients
Like I said, basic popovers only take 4 ingredients:
- Eggs
- Milk
- Flour
- Salt
Whole eggs provide the leavening or rise for the popovers. I use large eggs.
I use 1% or 2% dairy milk in all my baking and cooking. I'm not sure that non-dairy milk would work, due to its difference in calorie content and composition.
I've used all-purpose wheat flour here. I'm not sure that gluten-free flour blends would work.
Table salt rounds out the flavor and keeps the popovers from tasting flat.
Some recipes call for melted butter, but I don't use it. Although it's best for popover ingredients to be at room temperature, I'm impatient and mine never are. As a result, melted butter clumps up when it hits the cold milk and eggs, and makes the popovers bake unevenly.
Instructions
Ideally, warm your ingredients to room temperature. However, I get impatient so I rarely do, and my popovers still turn out.
Preheat your oven to 450F. For my oven, this takes longer than making the batter takes, so turn it on ASAP. You want to put the batter into a hot oven immediately, not wait around for your oven to be hot.
- Whisk together the eggs and milk until very frothy, about 1 minute.
- Sprinkle in the flour and salt, and whisk until just a few lumps remain. Don't overmix! You don't want to overwork the gluten, or the popovers may not rise properly.
- Fill the cups of a greased popover pan ¾ full, then bake at 450F degrees for 20 minutes.
- After the 20 minutes at high heat, reduce the heat to 350F to finish baking - but don't open the oven door! You don't want to chance them deflating.
Your finished popovers will have popped over the edges of the pan - they may not even be in the cups anymore - and will resemble an oddly shaped ice cream cone. This is normal, and part of the charm!
- Turn them out immediately onto a wire rack, and use a sharp knife to cut a small hole in the side of each one to release steam.
Serve immediately, either with a stew or gravy, or butter or jam.
Equipment
All you need to make popovers is a wire whisk and a popover pan.
The wire whisk (affiliate link) breaks up egg into milk (and batter) than anything else I can think of. Using it to stir in the flour also helps prevent clumps.
Popover pans are deeper than muffin tins and have steep sides. If you don't already have one, I recommend getting one with a lighter finish, because dark finishes on bakeware (like on my pan) tend to bake the outsides of baked goods quickly.
I haven't tried it, but you can also make popovers in muffin tins! Again, only fill the cavities ¾ full. They won't rise as dramatically, but they will still taste good.
Storage
Popovers are best on the day that they're made. Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature.
While you can microwave a popover for 5-10 seconds to warm it, the texture is much better if you use an oven or toaster oven, which will crisp up the outside.
Reheat at 350F for 5-10 minutes on an unlined baking sheet; you may want to flip it for the last 2 minutes to crisp the underside. In a toaster oven, reheat it like you would reheat anything else, keeping an eye on it to be sure it doesn't burn.
Top Tip
Anything that would go well in a crepe would go well with a popover. I've crisped leftover popovers and eaten them with ham, like a sandwich. My husband usually eats them with hazelnut spread.
FAQ
You'll have best results when you make popovers if your ingredients are at room temperature. However, I consistently make popovers with eggs and milk straight from the refrigerator; this includes the photos on this page from when I tested this recipe.
If you make a recipe that incorporates melted butter, the butter will seize and resolidify when it hits cold eggs or milk; warmed ingredients are best in that case. It's also the reason I don't use melted butter in this recipe.
If you like buttery popovers, you should certainly incorporate melted butter into the batter. In fact, Martha Stewart's Perfect Popovers recipe was the one I tried first, and did include butter. However, if you cook like I do and don't warm your ingredients in advance, the butter will seize and solidify when added to the batter, and the popovers won't cook properly.
In redoing this recipe, I've actually adapted a different Martha Stewart's Popovers recipe that doesn't take butter. If you don't add butter to the batter, it can't seize! To add a more buttery flavor, you can grease the popover cups with melted butter directly, or butter your popovers when you eat them.
Popovers rise because you build a lot of air bubbles into the eggs while you whisk the eggs and milk together. Since popover batter is very liquidy and baked in a hot oven, the milk turns into steam quickly, making the popovers rise.
If your popovers fail to rise, you may not have beaten the eggs enough. It's also possible you've beaten the batter too much after adding flour, which will activate gluten. Gluten strengthens bread but also makes it firmer and harder, which can prevent your popovers from rising.
Be sure not to crack open your oven to peek at popovers while they bake, as letting out the very hot air can introduce a draft which can keep your popovers from rising, or staying risen, while they bake.
Although popovers are best on the day they're made, you can still enjoy them later on. The ideal way is to reheat them on an unlined baking pan in a 350F oven, for 5-10 minutes; flip them for the last 2 so that both sides crisp back up. You can also recrisp them in a toaster oven; time will vary, so check often.
I do not recommend microwaving popovers because they will not be crisp. However, if you only want them warm and don't mind if they're soft, heat for around 8 seconds on high. Do not overheat; overheated popovers (and other baked goods) will toughen up when they cool down.
Leftover popovers are best if heated up in the oven or a toaster oven. My favorite thing to do is to stick a few slices of ham into them to turn them into a sandwich. My husband will reheat a popover and spread hazelnut spread in it. I personally find popovers to be a big eggy, and so they remind me of eclairs or cream puffs. As such, I'd add a spoonful of pudding or pastry cream to a split popover, when I'm ready to eat it, shortly after reheating. Don't add anything in advance, as it will make the popover soggy and you won't be able to reheat it again.
Related
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📖 Recipe
Martha Stewart's Popovers
Equipment
- wire whisk (affiliate link)
- popover pan (muffin pan will work too)
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cup milk (360 grams)
- 1 ½ cup flour (185 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
- For best results, pull out your eggs and milk to come to room temperature. (However, I never do.)
- Preheat the oven to 450F. Preheating usually takes longer than actually preparing the popovers.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until very frothy. This should happen in under a minute.
- Sprinkle in flour and salt. Whisk until just a few small lumps remain. Don't overmix, or gluten can develop and prevent your popovers from rising.
- Spray popover cups with spray oil, or grease them. Divide batter among the 12 popover cups, filling ¾ full.
- Bake at 450F for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes at high heat, reduce temperature to 350F and bake for another 20 minutes, for a total of 40 minutes. Don't peek at the popovers while they bake, or they may deflate.
- Remove popovers from oven and turn out immediately onto a cooling rack. Slit the sides with a sharp knife to let steam escape.
- Serve popovers immediately. Serve alongside a gravy or stew, or with butter or jam.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature for a few days. Popovers are best on the day they're made; however, you can reheat them in a 350F oven on an unlined baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, flipping them for the last few minutes. This will crisp them back up and make for pleasanter eating.
Notes
[Originally written January 28, 2011. Completely rewritten and replaced in April 2025.]
Starr says
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2005/12/green_onion_parmesan_popovers
That's all I have to say.
Oh, and yum.
Babygirl says
You're right, popover are usually eggy but these popovers came out look scrumptious. Really nice job. I may have to use this recipe.
Jane says
My popover pan must be larger than others because the recipe made 4, not 9–but wow! Beautiful & delicious. Can this recipe be doubled? . Nothing is worse than watching a batch of popover NOT rise. You have given me new hope.
Leona Konkel says
I'm glad you enjoyed them! I don't see why you couldn't double them. If for some reason they bake differently and you have more batter than you can use in your pan, you should be able to put the remaining batter in muffin cups.
Leona Konkel says
Although popovers are eggy, these have grown on me. I've particularly enjoyed my ham sandwiches on leftover ones! I've rewritten this recipe entirely now, and love that they work even with cold eggs and milk. I hope you love how they turn out. Let me know if you've tried this recipe!