Chocolate Popovers - made August 14, 2013 from
Prepared Pantry
I don't have much to say about this recipe except I still have problems with popovers sinking in the middle because of the cooking spray that coats the muffin tin cavity. This recipe even calls for putting a pat of butter in the middle and that would've made more of a crater. Oh (I guess I do have more to say), also, watch the baking times on this one. Popovers need to start off in a high heat oven to get the "spring" from the initial bake but in my oven, anything over 400 degrees seems to get hotter than it should be. I turned down the heat sooner than the instructions said to because I could see and smell that the popovers were starting to burn. If you look at the picture below, you can see the dark ring around it are just edging towards thinking about being burnt any minute yet the middles weren't done, as I discovered when I took them out a few minutes early because I was afraid of them getting scorched.
Appearance aside though, these were pretty good. I liked the lightness of the texture and the taste of the popover itself. Their ultimate purpose was to serve as a base for a hot fudge sundae (hold the whipped cream, skip the maraschino cherry) so you tear it open to spread it out, scoop vanilla ice cream on top, pour warm nutella over the ice cream and sprinkle with chopped, toasted nuts. Fantastic.
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup high protein bread flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
butter
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- In a medium bowl and with a whisk or whisk attachment, beat the eggs, milk, salt and sugar together.
- Change to the paddle attachment. Beat in the flour and cocoa until it is completely smooth. Continue mixing for several
minutes to develop the gluten.
- Use a pastry brush to grease the insides of the popover cups with butter. If you are
using a muffin pan, grease every other cup. Place about a teaspoon of
butter in the bottom of each cup.
- Fill the cups two-thirds full. Bake at high heat for 15
minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 12
minutes. (Different ovens cool differently and may require different
times.)
- Remove the popovers from the oven when they are golden
brown. Quickly make a one-inch slit in the side of each popover to
release the steam. Lift the popovers from the pan by grasping the tops
with an oven mitt. Serve them while still warm.
They still look fantastic! I've never tried making popovers. Didn't even know you could use them as dessert. Great idea :)
ReplyDeleteHmm. This recipe is very interesting. I am confused as to why you (and prepared pantry) use high protein flour and try to get gluten to form. The recipe mom and I use does the exact opposite, stir just to incorporate the wet and dry ingredients and do it by hand without the electric mixer. Mine always seem to pop up nicely as long as I don't open the oven too soon.
ReplyDeleteAudrey, as near as I can tell, the high protein flour is supposed to provide the highest rise and most crisp crust. All the other popover recipes do try to prevent gluten from forming so it won't be tough which is why most recipes(except this one) has you rest the batter for an hour or so before baking. I've made it both ways and haven't found a discernible difference in the texture or popover height but then again, I haven't tried them side by side. I don't know if this one was treated differently because of the cocoa. Cook's Illustrated says NOT to use butter to grease the pan and this recipe has you putting it in. I opted to omit the butter and used cooking spray.
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