How to make the best Popovers from scratch with just 15 minutes of hands-on time! Light and airy on the inside, golden and crispy on the outside, popovers are a beautiful addition to your holiday table or a simple, easy way to elevate weeknight dinners. The simple batter can be made ahead!
A flower does not have to do anything of service, it only has to be a flower. That is enough. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
With just a couple of days left before Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a recipe for one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions, Popovers! I was first introduced to these at my first Thanksgiving with my husband’s family. His brother-in-law, Dan would make these addictive little guys, adding parmesan and thyme, and they quickly stole my heart.
Popovers are essentially light and airy dinner rolls, with golden crispy exteriors, hollow centers, and buttery flavor. Does it get better than that?
What I love about this recipe is how easy it is. Place everything in a blender, let the batter come to room temp while the oven preheats, then bake for 30 minutes. A fun and easy thing to make that will absolutely delight your family!
And trust me, they will be delighted. It’s an easy way to turn a simple dinner of say something like soup, into a special event.
One caveat- the popover pan. You don’t have to have one, but it does make a taller narrower popover (ie, “cuter”) vs. using a muffin tin. Up to you. I like this one. And trust me once you make this recipe, you’ll probably be making it often.
Popovers are made with very simple ingredients you probably have on hand.
Ingredients in Popovers:
- eggs
- flour
- whole milk (or use half & half and water)
- butter (divided)
- salt
- fresh thyme
- parmesan- optional ( leave this out or add pecorino)
- popover pan!
How to make Popovers from Scratch?
- Simply blend the popover ingredients in a blender until smooth.
- Let the batter come to room temp.
- Butter a preheated popover pan and fill with the batter.
- Bake in a hot oven until puffed and golden, about 30 minutes.
How to make Popovers ahead:
- If making Popover batter ahead, store in a sealed jar in the fridge.
- Bring the butter to room temp before baking- you can place the jar of batter in a bowl of warm water to hasten this. Mix well.
Buttering the preheated popover pan is what gives the popover it’s crispy golden exterior.
You can use melted butter or little pats of butter.
You’ll need to add 1 teaspoon melted butter to each one.
For extra buttery, add 2 teaspoons, up to you.
Divide the popover batter.
Top with fresh Thyme and optional parmesan cheese.
Place it in a hot oven for 20 minutes.
Lower heat and bake 10 more minutes so they hold their shape.
Bake until gloriously puffed and golden.
Often you’ll see popovers that have sunken down, but baking them just a little longer helps them maintain their beautiful shape.
Can popovers be reheated?
Absolutely. Popovers are best right out of the oven, but yes, they can be baked ahead, and reheated in the oven, and will even get crispy again!
Bake directly on the oven rack (or toaster oven) for 12-15 minutes at 375F or until crispy.
Tips for making the BEST popovers:
- Use a popover pan for taller narrower popovers! the BEST.
- Make sure the batter is at room temp before baking.
- Make sure the oven is preheated sufficiently.
- Don’t use too much flour or they will be heavy.
- Fill the popover pan almost to the top.
- After the first 20 minutes, continue baking at a lower temp so they hold their structure, and don’t sink down.
- Every oven is different, so make a practice batch.
Hope your Thanksgiving week is off to a fine start! Enjoy the popovers and show them to us on instagram.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, friends!
Sylvia
Print
Parmesan Popovers with Thyme
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: dinner rolls, breads, baked
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
How to make the best Popovers from scratch that are light and airy on the inside and golden and crispy on the outside. An easy recipe that requires only 15 minutes of hands-on time! Using a popover pan makes them extra-stunning.
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 1 3/4 cups whole milk (or sub 3/4 cups half & half and 1 cup water)
- 1 1/4 cup flour, spooned and leveled
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan, more for sprinkling
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme (divided)
- —-
- 2 tablespoons butter (melted, or 6 little slices)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450F (or 425F with convection on) with popover pan inside, on the middle rack with ample room for expansion. (Please see note for electric ovens).
Place eggs, milk, flour, salt, melted butter and parmesan in a blender. Blend until smooth, scraping down sides to incorporate all of the flour. Stir in 1 tablespoon fresh thyme.
Place batter in a warm spot (like on the stove) so it comes to room temp. ( You could also place the blender in a bowl of warm water) while the oven gets hot.
When ready to bake, pull out the hot popover pan, and place a teaspoon of butter into each tin (either melted or cold). Moving quickly, stir the batter once more, then pour batter into each tin, dividing equally. Sprinkle the with the remaining tablespoon of fresh thyme and extra parmesan if you like.
Bake at 450F for 18 minutes. Turn heat down to 350F (or 325F with convection)and continue baking 10 minutes.
You want to bake for 25-30 minutes- so they don’t deflate. All ovens are different- I find this timing works perfectly in my gas oven, producing a deeply golden, crispy popover that holds its shape after cooling. It may take one practice try to get the timing perfect for your oven.
See note for electric oven.
Notes
***If you have an electric oven, when you place the popovers in the oven, lower heat to 425F, bake 20 minutes, lower heat to 350F for last 10 minutes.
If making batter ahead and refrigerating, make sure to bring to room temp before using and mix well.
You can bake these in no-stick muffin tins, but may spread wide rather than tall.
If using dried thyme, instead of fresh, sub 1 teaspoon mixed in the batter, and skip sprinkling over top.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 popover
Keywords: popovers, popover recipe, best popover recipe, how to make popovers, what is a popover, how to make popovers form scratch
Hi Sylvia – We loved these on Christmas Eve — they popped over beautifully and had a lovely gold color but were a bit doughy at the bottom. The batter was in a pot of warm water and I used popover pans. I was wondering should we have made 9 instead of 6?
★★★★★
Can you use regular muffin tin?
You can, but won’t rise up as tall, and wider base. May need to bake a little longer as well.
Hi Sylvia,
I think these sound great and would like to make them today. However I only have 1% milk, and no cream. Would it still work?
I have been using your recipes for a few weeks now and love them! Thanks for delicious and healthy recipes
thanks. so much Sandy! Glad you are enjoying them! I don’t think the 1% milk has enough fat in it to work well here. But I’m purely speculating. 🙂
This recipe inspired me to make popovers for the first time, though I’ve always enjoyed them in the past. I even bought the recommended popover pan in preparation. I followed the recipe “to a T” in my first attempt. Since I was baking in an electric oven, I adjusted the temperature settings as recommended by Sylvia. Unfortunately, they came out significantly under-baked and tasted stodgy. I immediately attempted again and cross-referenced other popover recipes to help troubleshoot. I tweaked two things. I chose not to add extra butter to the tins for a few reasons- 1:) there’s already butter in the recipe, 2:) my pan is non-stick, and 3:) the first recipe came out very heavy and dense and I think the extra butter may have contributed. I chose not coat the pan with anything and they turned out great with a nice golden crust and came out of the pan without issue. Also, I adjusted the bake times for 20 minutes at 450 degrees and then 20 minutes at 375 degrees. While still a tad under-baked and a little doughy on the inside (I have a 25 year old electric oven), they were edible and the flavors were very nice. I will make again and tweak a tad more as needed. Meanwhile, I made Sylvia’s pumpkin, leek, white bean soup which was PERFECT! I will write a review for the soup, too. It will be a keeper in my household for many, many years. Thank you, Sylvia for your lovely recipes and for sharing your kitchen wisdoms and joy for cooking.
★★★
It has taken me several tries too. I’m glad you figured out your perfect timing. Every oven is different. Did you use milk or half and half?
I made popovers this evening. The flavor was wonderful and the outside was crispy and delicious but my inside seemed a bit doughy. Any suggestions for next time?
Sorry about that. Did you use milk or half and half?
Sylvia, the outside was beautiful and crispy but my inside seemed a bit “doughy”.
Could not leaving it out to get to room temp cause that because that’s the only thing that I can see that I should have taken more time with.
Hummm, interesting. Did they pop up fully and not collapse? The bottoms are a bit doughy but it should taste “cooked” through.
Do you have any suggestions for making this to gluten free? Perhaps with Cup4Cup flour?
I haven’t tried- but bet it would work with a GF flour blend!
Very yummy and got quickly into my tummy 😉 haha, joking a little bit Sylvia, but this popovers were really easy to make and gave that little something to my Chestnut soup.Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi Sylvia,
Are there any other uses you like the popover pan for? I have been eyeing these for years but I lack the space for single use gadgets.
I was the same way, but gave in. I guess you could use them as a muffin tin?
This looks very tasty. Quick question: how does it rise without a leavening agent?
Eggs!