Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Popover for some tea?

Hope everybody is relaxing and enjoying the holidays. I know I am! After a long time, I spent my afternoons in the kitchen, whipping up stuff I always wanted to try.

On our trip to Maine this past summer, we had wonderful ‘popovers’ after a a long hike at the Acadia National Park. This cosy little teahouse called ‘The Jordan Pond House’ is located right in the middle of the park exactly where most visitors are likely to end up tired and hungry. The location was picture perfect, weather was great and we were served hot tea and wonderfully warm, fresh out the oven popovers with strawberry jam. I can almost still taste it!!

What makes popovers intersting is that they rise without any baking powder, soda or yeast. When you split them apart, they are almost hollow in the center. They rise mainly due to the steam generated by the high water content of the recipe, and the eggs hold them together. They are surpisingly easy to make... Only 5 ingredients!! You would ideally need a popover pan, which looks like a muffin pan BUT each cup is completely separated from others on all four sides. I used a muffin pan but just filled out the four corner cups since I was only serving two people.

Here is my rendition of popovers... not quite like the one we had in Maine... but close enough to keep us satisfied until we visit again.

Ingredients:
(Makes 4)

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
3 tbsps melted butter

How to proceed

1. To a blender jar, add flour, milk, salt and eggs and blend together. Scrape the sides to ensure all dry flour is incorporated.
2. Pour into individual popover cups. If using a muffin pan, fill only the corner cups 2/3 full.
3. Bake in a 425 degree (F) oven for about 20 - 30 mins.

More tea any one?

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