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For years this has been my go-to popovers recipe. I make popovers at least once a week. That may sound fancy, but these are so easy to make that soon you’ll be doing it too!
There are some foods that just sound fancy. Soufflé is definitely one. Galettes for sure. And in America at least, I’d wager popovers often make the list of “things you get at a fancy restaurant.”
But I’m here to tell you that popovers are so EASY to make, soon they’ll be one of your homemade favorites. I’m also sharing a few simple tricks I use to make sure my popovers are tall and airy. (If you ask me, the height is part of what makes popovers so fun to eat!)
I also love this popovers recipe because it uses a nice amount of eggs. 5 to be exact. We have a small flock of highly productive chickens and the eggs quickly pile up on the counter. Any recipe that helps me make a dent in that pile is a keeper!
So What Are Popovers Anyways?
A popover is a light and airy roll made with egg batter. It’s similar to a Yorkshire pudding and is usually baked in either a muffin tin or a specialized pan made specifically for popovers. These pans have extra deep tins with straight sides, which help your popovers achieve as much height as possible.
The name “popover” comes from what way these delicious treats “pop” over the top of the tin while baking.
Why You’ll Love This Popover Recipe
- EASY. I’m telling you, this recipe is so simple to make. Your blender (affiliate link) does most of the work. The key to success when making popovers is to use the right pan, plus a few other tips I share below.
- Elegant. If you want to elevate even the simplest breakfast to “fancy,” serve popovers on the side. Even if you are just making scrambled eggs with home fries adding popovers to the mix makes everything feel extra.
Ingredients & Tools
You will only need 5 ingredients to make popovers. Here is a quick run down of what you’ll need. Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for specific amounts.
- Large Eggs – I always use room temperature eggs. If you are using eggs that have been stored in the fridge, be sure to let them sit on the counter for a couple hours first.
- Milk – Use lukewarm milk. I just warm it in the microwave for 15-30 seconds before adding to the batter. It doesn’t matter if you use skim, part-skim or whole milk. (I use whole milk.)
- Kosher Salt – Try to avoid using regular table salt. The fine granules make it easy to over-salt the batter.
- All-Purpose Flour
- Unsalted Butter – The butter will be melted before it’s added to the batter. As with the milk, make sure it is warm, not hot. If you add hot butter or milk to your batter you risk your eggs cooking slightly.
Do I Need a Special Pan?
It is technically possible to make popovers in a regular muffin tin. However, if you go this route your popovers won’t be as tall as the ones shown in my photos. Why? Because a popover pan has deeper tins that allow your popover to really gain some height while baking. The cups where you pour the batter also have straight sides that help your popovers rise as much as possible.
I have two popover tins that I love. One is the Bellemain 6 Cup Popover Pan (affiliate link), which you can get on Amazon. I also have this Nordic Ware Popover Pan from Williams Sonoma.
How to Make Popovers
Once all your ingredients are assembled and at room temperature, it’s time to make your popovers. Here’s how to do it:
- Preheat oven to 450F. Position rack on the lower half of your oven so that your popovers have room to rise. Place the un-greased popover pan in the oven to warm.
- Combine the eggs, milk and salt. In a food processor or blender, combine the eggs, milk and salt. Process for a few seconds until just combined. You should not see streaks of yolk.
- Add the flour and pulse until combined, about 20 seconds. Scrape down sides of your blender or food processor bowl to get any flour off the sides. There should not be any big lumps in the batter.
- Add the melted butter and pulse until combined, about 20 seconds. The batter should be slightly frothy on top, as shown in the photo above.
- Grease heated popover pan. Carefully remove heated popover pan from oven and spray well with PAM or other cooking spray.
- Pour the batter into the popover molds, filling about 3/4 high.
- Bake. Place pan on lower rack in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Do not open the oven door.
- Reduce heat to 350F and bake for another 15 minutes or so. Do not open the oven door for first 10 minutes. After 10 min you can check periodically for doneness. Popovers are done when they are a deep golden brown.
Tips for the Tallest, Fluffiest Popovers
Making popovers is pretty easy, but there are definitely a few tricks I use for the best results. Any time I’ve skipped them my popovers are not as tall or fluffy.
- Preheat your popover pan. I always add my tin to the oven while it is pre-heating and leave the pan in there until I’m ready to add the batter. This step helps the batter start baking and rising immediately vs. slowly starting to bake as the popover tin heats up.
- Use a food processor or blender. I know that traditionally popovers were made by hand whisking the batter. But I find the batter comes together more evenly if I use a food processor or blender. Which one is better? The blender because you can get the batter mixing at higher speeds in less time.
- Do not open the oven door. It is so hard to resist peeking! However, when you open the door you let some of the heat escape, which means your popovers won’t rise as much.
Serving Suggestions
One of the best thing about popovers is that they go with any meal of the day!
- For breakfast: We slather them with butter and jam, then eat them alongside scrambled eggs, oatmeal or omelettes.
- For lunch and dinner: Popovers are the perfect side with a steaming bowl of soup or chili. Some of our favs are this Smokey White Bean Soup, this Sweet Potato Chili or this Butternut Squash Stew. Popovers also go amazing well with any recipe that has a rich gravy to soak up, like this Instant Pot Pot Roast recipe.
- Dessert! This may sound crazy but my kiddo likes to stuff these with scoops of ice cream, fresh fruit and then drizzle chocolate sauce all over them. You can have an ice cream taco this way lol.
And of course, it pretty much goes without saying that popovers are perfect for snacking. Just warm them up in the oven, add some butter and jam, then enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea.
How Long Do Popovers Last?
Popovers are best the day they are made. So go ahead and use that as an excuse to indulge in as much popover goodness as you want!
If you must store leftovers, you can keep extras in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Warm them in the oven before serving. Popovers will get soggy if you microwave them.
Easy Popovers Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 large eggs , at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups milk, lukewarm
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
- 3 tablespoons melted butter, cooled so that it is warm not hot
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F. Position rack on the lower half of your oven so that your popovers have room to rise. Place the un-greased popover pan in the oven to warm.
- Combine the eggs, milk and salt. In a food processor or blender, combine the eggs, milk and salt. Process for a few seconds until just combined. You should not see streaks of yolk.
- Add the flour and pulse until combined, about 20 seconds. Scrape down sides of your blender or food processor bowl to get any flour off the sides. There should not be any big lumps in the batter.
- Add the melted butter and pulse until combined, about 20 seconds. The batter should be slightly frothy on top, as shown in the photo above.
- Grease heated popover pan. Carefully remove heated popover pan from oven and spray well with PAM or other cooking spray.
- Pour the batter into the popover molds. Fill each mold about 3/4 high.
- Bake. Place pan on lower rack in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Do not open the oven door.
- Reduce heat to 350F and bake for another 15 minutes. Do not open the oven door for first 10 minutes. After 10 min you can check periodically for doneness. Popovers are done when they are a deep golden brown.
These popovers are the best I have ever made! I tried other recipes, and did not have success with the popovers rising high enough. The extra steps allowed for a beautiful outcome, such as warming the pans and milk. Awesome!
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for giving it a try and for coming back to me know how it turned out. 🙂
recipe is fantastic! but the cooking time or temp was off for me….. they looked perfect after the first stage, but the extra time at the lower temp burnt them.
Going to try again today, but I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to vary ( time/temp)
If your oven runs a bit hot, I would check them after the first stage as long as they are golden brown. Also make sure that your popover pan is on the middle rack of the oven, and that the rack is not so high that the popovers will touch the the top of your oven (or get too close to it) when they rise. Since these popovers get so tall if they get too close to the top of the oven they can overcook.
Turned out great! I’ve been looking for a good recipe years ago and have up. Wanted to try again, found this one and love it! Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this popover recipe! Thank you for letting me know how they turned out. 🙂
I have never been successful making popovers but I had to try this recipe after reading all the comments. They came out perfect! Will definitely make again.
Comments like this totally make my day, thank you for trying the recipe and coming back to tell me how it went. <3
These are delicious. I’ve tried other recipes and this is by far the best one. So light and fluffy. M boy did they popover!!
Wonderful! Glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe. 🙂 We love making these popovers!
We added a bit more of the red wins than the beef broth to the gravy, but the meat was tender and fragant from the herbs. We served it with asparagus and Yorkshire pupping. Best Sunday dinner in a long time Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I think you meant this Instant Pot stew? But either way, so glad you liked the recipe and thank you for coming back to tell me that you all enjoyed it. I can’t wait to start making that stew during the cold season.
Wonderful…I’ve made popovers forever but warming pan first and letting the mixture set before putting in oven…game changer. Biggest popovers I’ve made EVER. thank you
That makes me so happy to hear! Thank you for coming back to let me know you enjoyed this recipe. 🙂
Holy moly! These popovers were incredible. Easy, fluffy, everything you’d want in a popover. We’ll be making these again!
My mother made perfect popovers all the time when I was a kid. But she past away and I’ve been struggling for years (decades?) trying to figure out why my popovers won’t rise. After yet another failure, I found your recipe yesterday and felt a serious eureka moment when I read your wonderfully detailed instructions and tips. I carefully followed your directions this morning and made my first batch of proper popovers in many years. Thank you so much!!!!
Oh my goodness, this is the best comment ever! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this popover recipe, your comment really warmed my heart. <3
Hello,
I live at 7,000 ft in altitude. When you say mile high popovers, are you referencing just the fact that they are tall and airy? Or is this a recipe I can use at altitude?
Thank you!
Excellent question and not something I had thought about before! “Mile high” refers to how tall these popovers get, not to high altitude baking.
I had the same question–since moving to 6000ft I can’t get mine to pop over. Looking for a recipe that will work here.
Michelle
Since you are the second person to wonder if these are high altitude popovers, I changed the recipe name to “easy popovers recipe.” I wish I knew how to make these work for you at 6,000ft! You’ve probably already seen this but this website has a good resource for adapting recipes.
These popovers were so easy to make and they came out perfect! Thanks for the recipe. I will definitely be making these again!
That makes me so happy to hear. 🙂
These are the best popovers I’ve ever had. And that includes the ones I’ve had a fancy restaurants. Awesome recipe!
Thanks! I made them again this weekend. My family loves them, glad you did too. 🙂
Amazing! These were so easy. Making popovers again this weekend!
So glad you liked them! We make this popover recipe all the time!