How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (2024)

This Jordan Pond House Best Popover recipe is sure to be a hit at your house! These popovers are known regionally as the best popovers in all of New England. If you’ve never tried a popover before, you’re in for a real treat.

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How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (1)

What Are Popovers?

A popover is a light, fluffy muffin made from a thin eggy batter that rises to form a hollow shell when baked. That airy shell is typically served hot and slathered with butter and strawberry jam.

You can easily buy an expensive gourmet popover baking mix, but since there are only 5 ingredients — flour, milk, eggs, salt, and baking soda — why not make your own? The taste is just as delicious, and popovers are so easy to make.

The baking technique for making popovers is a crucial element to this recipe. There’s lots of beating with your electric hand mixer. And absolutely no opening the oven door and peeking! This could cause the popovers to deflate, similar to a soufflé.

How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (2)

The Famous Jordan Pond House at Acadia National Park

If you’ve ever visited the Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, you likely know about theJordan Pond House — a lovely tea house on Park Loop Road inside the park.

Jon and I visited Acadia National Park and TheJordan Pond House seven summers ago when we spent a romantic long weekend in Bar Harbor, Maine, celebrating our anniversary. We stayed at the Primrose Inn in Bar Harbor, which is a gorgeous 1878 Victorian-era bed & breakfast. Acadia National Park is a stunning park with beautiful trails, mountain vistas, and incredible views.

On our way home from the long weekend, we stopped at The Jordan Pond House for popovers and a glass of iced tea. They serve afternoon tea with popovers every day from 11:30-5:30. Weheard about the popovers over the weekend. And after savoring one, we “popped” into the gift shop to buy a popover pan that includedthe famousJordan Pond House “Best Popover Recipe.”

These popovers are known regionally asthe best popovers in New England, and they’re not hard to make. Just follow the easy directions below from “The Story of Jordan Pond,” published by the Acadia Corporation.

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Key Ingredients

You only need 5 ingredients to make the best popovers ever at home! As far as dry ingredients go, you’ll need to sift together all-purpose flour, salt, and baking soda. For the wet ingredients, all you need is whole milk and room temperature eggs. That’s all!

How To Make the Best Homemade Popovers

These popovers take less than an hour to make, and only require 5 simple ingredients that you probably have in your pantry right now. So, get to baking!

  1. In a large bowl, add the eggs and mix at a high speed until they are doubled in size, which should be around 2-3 minutes. You want to incorporate a lot of air into the eggs (especially the egg white) so that the batter is light and fluffy. Once the eggs are whipped, turn the speed down. Pour the milk in, and whisk until everything is fully incorporated.
  2. Continue mixing, and add the sifted dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking soda). Once everything is mixed well, but not overly so or to the point that the whipped eggs have deflated, add the remaining milk, and continue whisking for another minute.
  3. Grease the muffin pan, and add it into the 425 degrees F oven to preheat for 5 minutes. While the pan is preheating, strain the batter to prevent lumps, and then divide the mixture equally into the muffin pan.
  4. Bake in the middle shelf for 15 minutes, and then reduce the temperature to 350 F. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, then carefully remove from the muffin tin, and serve warm with softened butter and jam. Enjoy!

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Tips and Tricks

  • Popover pans can be substituted with a regular muffin pan, but there will be a slight difference in the height of the popovers since the muffin pan is shorter.
  • Have your eggs sitting at room temperature for at least an hour before mixing the batter for best results.
  • To get a smooth batter, sift the flour before mixing it into the eggs. And also, strain the batter before adding it to the muffin pans.
  • Avoid opening the oven in the first 15 minutes so the popovers get the right form and texture.

What To Serve with Popovers

Popovers are traditionally served warm or hot with butter and strawberry jam. They can also be served savory with butter, sliced ham or turkey, or even taco filling. They can be served sweet with Nutella, chocolate ganache, sweet marscarpone, or pie filling.

More Baked Goods Recipes To Try

  • Fresh Strawberry Crepes
  • Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
  • Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
  • Birthday Cupcakes
  • Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

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Print Recipe

5 from 7 votes

Jordan Pond House Best Popover Recipe

Best popover recipe in all of New England! Light and airy. Traditionally served hot with butter and jam.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Servings: 6

Author: Allie Taylor

Ingredients

  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup sifted all purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Speck of baking soda

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 425°.

  • Sift and measure flour, salt and soda. Set aside.

  • Beat the eggs at high speed until lemon colored (2-3 minutes).

  • On slowest speed, very slowly 1/2 cup of the milk. Beat until well mixed.

  • Add slowly (with mixer going on slow speed) the dry ingredients.

  • When mixed, stop beating.

  • Scrape sides of the bowl with a spatula.

  • Beat at medium speed and slowly add the remaining milk.

  • Beat 2 minutes.

  • Place well-greased muffin tin or popover pan into oven to warm up for five minutes.

  • Turn mixer to high speed and beat 5-7 minutes.

  • Batter should be smooth and about the thickness of heavy cream.

  • Pour batter through a strainer, and into well-greased, preheated muffin tins or popover pan.

  • Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven at 425° for the first 15 minutes.

  • Without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350° and bake 15 - 20 minutes longer.

  • Popovers are best served at once, but may be kept in the warm oven for up to five minutes.

  • Serve immediately with butter and strawberry jam.

How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good popovers? ›

My biggest tip for creating perfect popovers is to use warm milk and room-temperature eggs with absolutely no chill on them. Do not take the milk and eggs from the fridge and use them. Cold ingredients will give you dense popovers. Warm ingredients will give you light, airy, and perfect popovers.

Why are my popovers not airy? ›

Preheating your oven to the correct temperature is probably the most important thing you can do to ensure popover success. The hotter your oven, the higher your popovers will rise. Which makes sense: the faster liquid in the batter turns into steam, the more chance your popover has to expand before its crust sets.

Should popover batter rest before baking? ›

There's just one thing that will make the popovers better, and that's time. The batter needs time to rest before baking so that it creates a more tender popover in the end. So, cover the batter and pop it into the refrigerator for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.

Why were my popovers so dense? ›

Why are my popovers dense? Dense popovers (either from not rising or not getting nice hollows inside) can result from a couple things but usually it is by either not starting with room temperature eggs and milk, not preheating the popover pan, not using a quality popover tin, and/or making too thick of a batter.

Why do popovers fail? ›

Too cold and you won't get the popovers to steam internally quickly enough. But be aware that you shouldn't make it too hot. If your milk and/or butter is hot enough to cook the eggs while mixing, the batter won't rise. Best to use all warm ingredients in the 40-50 degrees celsius (100-120 fahrenheit) range.

Should popover batter be cold or room temperature? ›

How to make popovers. Before we get started: all of your ingredients should be at warm room temperature. To warm ice-cold eggs from the fridge, place them in a cup of hot tap water for about 10 minutes.

What type of flour is best for popovers? ›

using room temperature eggs (see recipe for how to quickly bring your eggs to room temperature) room temperature milk (see recipe for how to quickly bring your milk to room temperature) hot oven. bread or all-purpose flour: for especially loft popovers, bread flour is your gal!

How to prevent popovers from deflating? ›

An additional trick for keeping popovers crisp is to gently poke a hole in the side of each one with a sharp knife when you remove it from the pan to allow extra team to escape without deflating the crust dome.

Should popover pans be greased? ›

And be sure to grease not only the cups, but the surface around them as well. The popovers are going to balloon up and over the edges of the wells. Fill the cups about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Put the pan in the oven, on a lower rack.

Why are my popovers not puffing up? ›

Preheat your popover pan. NEVER open the oven door while baking. Use room temperature ingredients. Use the freshest eggs possible.

Can popover batter sit overnight? ›

Plan Ahead: The batter will need to rest for at least 1 hour, up to 48 hours ahead. For the best flavor and texture let the batter rest for 24 hours. Always allow it to come to room temperature for an hour.

Is it necessary to poke the popover when it comes out of the oven? ›

Let the steam escape once they're done baking.

Popovers lose their crispiness if they linger in the pan, so turn them out on a wire rack immediately and make a small slit in the side of each with a paring knife to let the steam out.

Why does popover batter need to rest? ›

For maximum puff, we needed as thin and wet a batter as possible. We started by using low-fat milk instead of whole. We also let the batter rest for 25 minutes to give the flour time to fully hydrate.

How do you know when a popover is done? ›

Reduce the Heat and Continue Baking: Still without opening the oven, reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes. Now you can open the oven door and check the popovers. Finished popovers will be golden-brown, feel dry to the touch, and sound hollow when tapped.

What happens to an undercooked popover? ›

If your popovers lose volume when they come out of the oven, they are probably underbaked.

How to prevent popover from deflating? ›

Popovers are best served immediately. They will, unfortunately, begin to collapse after a few minutes outside of the oven. One way to help prevent this is to puncture the top and/or side of the popover with the tip of a small, sharp knife to help release some of the steam trapped inside.

Does popover batter have to rest? ›

For maximum puff, we needed as thin and wet a batter as possible. We started by using low-fat milk instead of whole. We also let the batter rest for 25 minutes to give the flour time to fully hydrate. Next, we skipped nonstick pans.

What is the best grease for a popover pan? ›

Grease the cups of a nonstick (6-cup) popover pan very generously with softened butter or the cups of a cast-iron pan generously with vegetable shortening.

References

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