Blue Cheese Popovers
Aug 21, 2021
I love popovers! Can’t say it enough. One of the simplest batters to make, but add a little fat and heat and “poof!” Heaven. Fresh and warm out of the oven, these little bread pillows are irresistible.
I’ve made cheese-flavored popovers before, but I wanted to see if I could create a version that included Blue Cheese for the cookbook.
In my experience, there are a couple of things that are crucial for optimal popover success. First, I use only whole milk. And, both the milk AND the eggs should be at room temperature. Most popover recipes call for the eggs, milk, flour mixture to be mixed in a bowl, but I really like the results I get when I use a blender.
First, I put eggs, milk and salt into the blender container and give it about a 30 second mix. Then, while the blender is running, I add the flour gradually. When it’s all added to the batter, I turn the machine up to medium-high and blend for a minute. This way I’m sure everything is well mixed and incorporated.
The final step is to add the crumbled blue cheese. I turn the blender back to low because, while I DO want the cheese to be well-distributed, I want a bit of texture in the popover, not have it all completely liquified.
Now comes the important part. All this time, I’ve had the oven heating to 425 degrees. While I’m mixing the batter, I have placed my popover pan on a baking sheet and put it in the oven. The pan has to be hot! By the way, to get the best results you DO want to use a popover pan — they are specially made to allow the batter to puff properly and get that mushroom-cloud shape. Ideally, use a non-stick one like this one from Chicago Metallic. If you don’t have one, that’s ok….just use a non-stick regular-sized muffin tin. I’m so obsessed with popovers, I actually have both regular-sized pans as well as minis!
Ok, enough about equipment. Back to the process!
After about 5 minutes in the oven, I remove the pan and, using a pastry brush, brush the bottoms and sides of each cup with a little melted beef drippings (true confession: I save drippings, if I have any leftovers, from my roasts in a jar in the freezer. You just never KNOW when an emergency popover or Yorkshire Pudding craving shows up. A girl’s gotta be prepared!) Now, if you don’t HAVE beef drippings, or would prefer to keep these vegetarian, you can use heated clarified butter or ghee in the same way you’d use the drippings. I’m not judging…it IS all about the Blue Cheese here after all.
After all the popover cups have been coated in drippings, the pan goes BACK into the oven to heat up for another 8 minutes to allow the drippings/butter to get really hot.
Remove the pan again from the oven, then carefully pour the batter into the cups, filling them to about 2/3rds. Then they go back into the oven for the first part of the bake, the high-heat one that helps build that glorious puff. After 10 minutes at the high heat, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking popovers. Do NOT open the oven yet to rotate the popovers. You can rotate them after they have started to noticeably puff and are starting to get color.
Depending on your oven, you’ll probably bake the popovers for another 15-25 minutes are the lower temperature. If you want airier hollows in the puff portion of the bread, take a small toothpick or skewer and poke the puff just under the crease where it’s ballooning to let the steam out.
When your popovers are deeply golden brown, remove them from the oven and serve immediately. They will deflate a bit as they cool and these are always so much better while they are still warm. You can serve them with butter and/or jam, if you like. Even though they are savory, blue cheese goes well with flavors such as cherry, peach, apricot, plum…and the blue cheese flavor is noticeable, but not overwhelming so feel free to experiment.
I hope you enjoy these little bready marvels. If you make this recipe, I’d love it if you’d share how they turned out!
If you love blue cheese as much as I do, check out my other blue cheese recipes I have here on the website.
Blue Cheese Popovers
Equipment
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Non-stick Popover pans or deep non-stick muffin tins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole milk, at room temperature
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 5 lg eggs, at room temperature
- 4 oz Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
- 1/4 cup beef pan drippings from Prime Rib Roast, melted (or clarified butter)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 425°.
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In a blender, combine milk, salt and eggs. Blend for 30s.
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While blender is running, add flour 1/2 cup at a time. When all flour is added, add crumbled blue cheese to blender. Blend on medium-high speed for 1 minute.
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Set popover pan on a sheet tray and place in preheated oven for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and brush bottom and sides of pans with melted pan drippings. Place pan back in the oven for 5 minutes to heat drippings. Remove pan from oven and carefully pour popover batter evenly into pans.
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Place popover pans in oven for 10 minutes at 425°. Reduce heat to 350° and finish baking until puffed and brown. For airier popovers, during the last 5 minutes of baking time, poke a small hole into the dome of the popover using a small sharp knife or wooden skewer.
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Remove from oven and serve immediately.
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