Monday, September 7, 2009

Food Magic: Popovers


One of the things I really like about cooking is the "magic" behind food. What I mean is the cool things you can do with food that have that "wow" factor. Sure, most of it can be explained by scientific reasoning, but even science amazes us and entertains us...brings a smile to our faces.

I've always wanted to make popovers for this very reason (and finally did this morning). Popovers are a perfect example of some of the cool stuff food science can do. Why? Because they're made of nothing more than flour, milk, and eggs and somehow, you end-up with these neat, odd-looking bread-like creatures that look like they're foaming-up and crawling out of the pan. Reminds me of those expanding foam water toys. They're all toasty and brown on the outside and soft and eggy, almost creamy on the inside with a hollow center. It's kind of like a balloon made out of pancake batter.

Of course, one of the coolest things about popovers is that wonderful cavity in the middle that's just begging to be filled with something. The minute I took a batch out of the oven this morning, I started wondering what I could put in them...

Ice cream?
Custard?
How about a hearty stew or creamy soup?

Mmmm....

You too can make popovers and, trust me, they're really not all that hard. You don't even need a popover pan. A standard muffin tin will do just fine. Here's a wonderful recipe, borrowed from Cook's Country.

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