Popovers That Didn't Popover

A few months ago, Ben ordered the Food & Wine annual cookbook to give us inspiration for new dishes. We love The Food Network, and wanted to feel as though we were seasoned chefs like Bobby Flay and culinary experts like Gail Simmons (love her). The book has very involved recipes, and uses fancy ingredients like marjoram and cooked chestnuts.

One morning I was feeling particularly chichi and decided to make orange popovers. Popovers are a light hollow roll made from egg batter, and get their name from the tendency of the batter to pop over the tip of the muffin tin while baking. The recipe seemed pretty straightforward, and I just loved the idea of putting fresh orange zest into the mixture (especially since my new zester had been sitting in my kitchen drawer for weeks collecting dust). I was going to make deliciously exquisite orange popovers and we were going to have a proper brunch.

Needless to say, my perfect plan didn't turn out the way I expected it to. My popovers did not really rise, and came out looking like flat-topped muffins that had a sort of burnt orange color (nothing like the golden round popovers in the picture). I wish I had taken a picture--they were really ugly. The popovers tasted good after all that, and had a divinely airy texture in the center. The subtly orange flavor from the zest was particularly appealing, so it wasn't a complete disaster. Here is the recipe--perhaps you will have more luck than I did!


Orange Popovers

Ingredients:
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1 1/4 cups milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flower
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar and grated orange zest Whisk the milk and 3 tablespoons of the melted butter. In another large bowl, whisk the flower with the baking powder and salt. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until only small lumps remain.
2. Brush the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin thoroughly with the remaining 1 tablespoon of melted butter, and preheat the muffin tin in the oven for about 5 minutes; the butter will turn a nutty brown.
3. Carefully fill the preheated muffin cups halfway with the popover batter. Bake the popovers for about 30 minutes, until they are risen and browned. Turn the popovers out onto a serving platter and serve right away. Enjoy with preserves or jam.