popovers take 2: they popped!

Continuing on my mission to make Jordan Pond House worthy popovers, I went online to see if I couldn't find Jordan Pond House's actual recipe. There are a few different recipes out there claiming to be the real deal and I was trying to determine which one to try first.  Then Lynsey recommended her mom's recipe, which I have on hand in the Waite Family Cookbook.  So, I combined the different recipes only to discover shocking results.

Here's how you make them:

Gather:

4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour (sifted, please!)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
2 tbs butter, melted (save some to grease the pan)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  (Mrs. Waite's recipe says to put the oven at 375 and others say to do 400 and then 350...I was cooking Shepherd's Pie at the same time, so I just left the oven at 400...oops?).  Put the popover pan into the oven while it's preheating.

Beat eggs in a bowl and whisk in milk.  Add flour and salt, most of the butter (don't forget to save some to grease the popover pan), and baking powder (I think this ingredient played a key role, as you soon will see) and whisk until smooth.

Take the popover pan out of the oven, grease it with the left over butter.  Then, don't take any chances and spray it verrryy liberally with Pam. There was no way I was letting the popovers stick to the bottom of the pan this time! Not only is it super annoying when that happens, but it also takes the fun out of eating popovers.  And then what's the point?   To top it all off, cleaning pans with popover stuck in the bottom is. not. fun. Nope! Not in the slightest. Once you're done spraying, distribute the batter among the cups.

Put the pan back in the oven and set the timer to 25 minutes. Then, if you're like me, giggle like a school girl while you watch them rise to ginormous proportions in the oven. Oh, and don't open the oven if you can possibly stand it! I couldn't. I opened it twice...in my defense, once was to put in the Shepherd's Pie. The other time was to take this picture, which doesn't even do the popping justice.

When the timer goes off...or the popovers look like they might explode...open the oven (finally it's allowed!) and prick each one with a fork.  Then cook for about 3 more minutes.  Get ready! Because when you take them out of the oven, they start to shrink kind of quickly.  They're still pretty funny looking though. 

Dan and I wanted to take a picture to give you some sense of proportion here.  I really, truly don't think these pictures do any justice to just how big these popovers were.  Dan thought that he could use his hand to show you...but if you don't know how big his hand is, well, it doesn't work.  I mean, what if he had really freakishly small hands? 

So, we grabbed something that was approximately the same size and something that you would all recognize.  Yes, these popovers were the size of soda cans.  Unreal.  (Can I throw in a rather long side note here?  I am absolutely obsessed with Polar Seltzer water.  So good.  I haven't been able to find it in Colorado, so drinking this and Dunkin Donuts are the two of my favorite parts of coming home to Maine. Trust me...I'm pretty sure Dan wished he could kick me out of the car the first ten or so times we passed a Dunkin Donuts on our drive east.  I usually started doing some horrendously dorky dance and rapping about how much I love "Dunks."  Thanks for putting up with me, Dan.)

And there you have it.  While my perfect popover search is by no means over, I feel like their sheer size makes these pretty good show stoppers.  I'll keep you posted as I test more recipes.  Also, check out that burn mark on the cutting board.  Apparently my grandmother had a close call back in the day.