How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (2024)

This Jordan Pond House Best Popover recipe is sure to be a hit at your house! These popovers are known regionally as the best popovers in all of New England. If you’ve never tried a popover before, you’re in for a real treat.

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How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (1)

What Are Popovers?

A popover is a light, fluffy muffin made from a thin eggy batter that rises to form a hollow shell when baked. That airy shell is typically served hot and slathered with butter and strawberry jam.

You can easily buy an expensive gourmet popover baking mix, but since there are only 5 ingredients — flour, milk, eggs, salt, and baking soda — why not make your own? The taste is just as delicious, and popovers are so easy to make.

The baking technique for making popovers is a crucial element to this recipe. There’s lots of beating with your electric hand mixer. And absolutely no opening the oven door and peeking! This could cause the popovers to deflate, similar to a soufflé.

How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (2)

The Famous Jordan Pond House at Acadia National Park

If you’ve ever visited the Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, you likely know about theJordan Pond House — a lovely tea house on Park Loop Road inside the park.

Jon and I visited Acadia National Park and TheJordan Pond House seven summers ago when we spent a romantic long weekend in Bar Harbor, Maine, celebrating our anniversary. We stayed at the Primrose Inn in Bar Harbor, which is a gorgeous 1878 Victorian-era bed & breakfast. Acadia National Park is a stunning park with beautiful trails, mountain vistas, and incredible views.

On our way home from the long weekend, we stopped at The Jordan Pond House for popovers and a glass of iced tea. They serve afternoon tea with popovers every day from 11:30-5:30. Weheard about the popovers over the weekend. And after savoring one, we “popped” into the gift shop to buy a popover pan that includedthe famousJordan Pond House “Best Popover Recipe.”

These popovers are known regionally asthe best popovers in New England, and they’re not hard to make. Just follow the easy directions below from “The Story of Jordan Pond,” published by the Acadia Corporation.

How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (3)

Key Ingredients

You only need 5 ingredients to make the best popovers ever at home! As far as dry ingredients go, you’ll need to sift together all-purpose flour, salt, and baking soda. For the wet ingredients, all you need is whole milk and room temperature eggs. That’s all!

How To Make the Best Homemade Popovers

These popovers take less than an hour to make, and only require 5 simple ingredients that you probably have in your pantry right now. So, get to baking!

  1. In a large bowl, add the eggs and mix at a high speed until they are doubled in size, which should be around 2-3 minutes. You want to incorporate a lot of air into the eggs (especially the egg white) so that the batter is light and fluffy. Once the eggs are whipped, turn the speed down. Pour the milk in, and whisk until everything is fully incorporated.
  2. Continue mixing, and add the sifted dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking soda). Once everything is mixed well, but not overly so or to the point that the whipped eggs have deflated, add the remaining milk, and continue whisking for another minute.
  3. Grease the muffin pan, and add it into the 425 degrees F oven to preheat for 5 minutes. While the pan is preheating, strain the batter to prevent lumps, and then divide the mixture equally into the muffin pan.
  4. Bake in the middle shelf for 15 minutes, and then reduce the temperature to 350 F. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, then carefully remove from the muffin tin, and serve warm with softened butter and jam. Enjoy!

How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (4)

Tips and Tricks

  • Popover pans can be substituted with a regular muffin pan, but there will be a slight difference in the height of the popovers since the muffin pan is shorter.
  • Have your eggs sitting at room temperature for at least an hour before mixing the batter for best results.
  • To get a smooth batter, sift the flour before mixing it into the eggs. And also, strain the batter before adding it to the muffin pans.
  • Avoid opening the oven in the first 15 minutes so the popovers get the right form and texture.

What To Serve with Popovers

Popovers are traditionally served warm or hot with butter and strawberry jam. They can also be served savory with butter, sliced ham or turkey, or even taco filling. They can be served sweet with Nutella, chocolate ganache, sweet marscarpone, or pie filling.

More Baked Goods Recipes To Try

  • Fresh Strawberry Crepes
  • Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
  • Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
  • Birthday Cupcakes
  • Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

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Print Recipe

5 from 7 votes

Jordan Pond House Best Popover Recipe

Best popover recipe in all of New England! Light and airy. Traditionally served hot with butter and jam.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Servings: 6

Author: Allie Taylor

Ingredients

  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup sifted all purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Speck of baking soda

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 425°.

  • Sift and measure flour, salt and soda. Set aside.

  • Beat the eggs at high speed until lemon colored (2-3 minutes).

  • On slowest speed, very slowly 1/2 cup of the milk. Beat until well mixed.

  • Add slowly (with mixer going on slow speed) the dry ingredients.

  • When mixed, stop beating.

  • Scrape sides of the bowl with a spatula.

  • Beat at medium speed and slowly add the remaining milk.

  • Beat 2 minutes.

  • Place well-greased muffin tin or popover pan into oven to warm up for five minutes.

  • Turn mixer to high speed and beat 5-7 minutes.

  • Batter should be smooth and about the thickness of heavy cream.

  • Pour batter through a strainer, and into well-greased, preheated muffin tins or popover pan.

  • Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven at 425° for the first 15 minutes.

  • Without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350° and bake 15 - 20 minutes longer.

  • Popovers are best served at once, but may be kept in the warm oven for up to five minutes.

  • Serve immediately with butter and strawberry jam.

How To Make the Best Popover Recipe - Through Her Looking Glass (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good popovers? ›

My biggest tip for creating perfect popovers is to use warm milk and room-temperature eggs with absolutely no chill on them. Do not take the milk and eggs from the fridge and use them. Cold ingredients will give you dense popovers. Warm ingredients will give you light, airy, and perfect popovers.

Should popover batter rest before baking? ›

There's just one thing that will make the popovers better, and that's time. The batter needs time to rest before baking so that it creates a more tender popover in the end. So, cover the batter and pop it into the refrigerator for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.

What is the best flour to use for popovers? ›

Bread Flour or All-Purpose Flour: The key to making these popovers super light and fluffy is to use bread flour. Bread flour contains a higher amount of protein than all-purpose flour, causing it to yield a much lighter and fluffier popover.

Why aren't my popovers popping up? ›

The gluten in flour (and protein from the eggs) create the structure that traps steam in rising popovers. Without this structure, steam will escape like air from a punctured balloon, and your popovers will puddle, not pop.

What are the biggest causes of popover failures? ›

Until last night…
  • Preheat your popover pan.
  • NEVER open the oven door while baking.
  • Use room temperature ingredients.
  • Use the freshest eggs possible.
Jun 22, 2016

What makes a popover rise? ›

The high proportion of liquid in the batter creates steam that causes the popovers to puff up like the popover pictured below. The conversion of the liquid in the batter to steam is dramatic. One part liquid converts to 1600 parts steam.

How to prevent popovers from deflating? ›

If you don't want your beautiful popovers to collapse, simply use a sharp paring knife and pierce the bottom of the hot popovers to allow steam to escape and place them on a cooling rack. Do not let them cool in the pan, they'll lose their shape.

How to tell when popovers are done? ›

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 15 minutes more, or until popovers are puffed and browned. Do not check popovers until they have baked for a total of 30 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and serve hot.

Should popover pans be greased? ›

A popover pan should be greased. I prefer to use melted butter, but oil or nonstick spray would work too. Greasing the pan ensures that the finished popovers don't stick and promotes browning on the exterior of the popover. After you've greased your pan, place it into the oven while it preheats.

Can you make popovers the night before? ›

To make ahead: You can make the batter and refrigerate it for up to one day before baking. Just let the batter come to room temperature and whisk it well or whirl it in the blender for a few seconds before pouring it into the muffin tins. To store: Store baked and cooled popovers in a ziptop bag for up to a day.

What makes popovers hollow? ›

The container forms the steam released in the oven heat into one giant bubble. This steam is contained with gluten from flour proteins, starch, and protein from eggs. So the popover literally 'pops' with steam, but the steam doesn't escape because the stretchy protein holds it inside the batter.

Why did my popovers turn out dense? ›

Why are my popovers dense? Dense popovers (either from not rising or not getting nice hollows inside) can result from a couple things but usually it is by either not starting with room temperature eggs and milk, not preheating the popover pan, not using a quality popover tin, and/or making too thick of a batter.

Should popover batter be cold or room temperature? ›

Make the batter in a blender; make it with a whisk. Beat till smooth and frothy; leave some lumps. Everything should be at room temperature.

How do you trigger a popover? ›

How popover is triggered - click | hover | focus | manual. You may pass multiple triggers; separate them with a space. `manual` cannot be combined with any other trigger. Offset of the popover relative to its target.

What happens to an underbaked popover? ›

If your popovers lose volume when they come out of the oven, they are probably underbaked. When these airy baked goods aren't cooked enough, too much steam stays trapped inside. That moisture condenses once they're removed from the oven, causing them to collapse.

How to keep popovers from falling? ›

The cookie sheet will shield popovers' tops from direct heat. If you plan on serving the popovers immediately, remove them from the oven, and stick the tip of a knife into the top of each, to release steam and help prevent sogginess. Slip them out of the pan, and serve.

Why do my popovers always deflate? ›

If your popovers lose volume when they come out of the oven, they are probably underbaked. When these airy baked goods aren't cooked enough, too much steam stays trapped inside. That moisture condenses once they're removed from the oven, causing them to collapse.

Is it necessary to poke the popover when it comes out of the oven? ›

Remove from oven:

Popovers lose their crunch if they linger in the pan, so turn them out on a wire rack immediately and poke a small opening in the side of each with a paring knife to let the steam escape.

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