The Workshop · Popover pan or muffin tin · About 50 minutes

Classic
Popovers

Name: Classic Popovers
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 6 popovers
Ingredients: 2 large eggs; 240 ml whole milk; 120 g all-purpose flour; 3 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt; 14 g unsalted butter, melted; 10 g unsalted butter, softened

Hollow, dramatic, and done in 40 minutes — popovers are just eggs, milk, flour, and one rule: don't open the oven.

10 min prep 40 min bake 50 min total

Spoon cost

Effort ●●○○○ Time ●●○○○ Some Doing

Vegetarian

Popoversamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Room temperature ingredients and a hot pan — those are the two things that make popovers work. Cold milk or eggs slow the steam that creates the rise. A cold pan means the batter starts sluggish. Get both right and the oven does the rest.

Easier, if you like

Make the batter the night before: mix it, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Take it out 30 minutes before baking to come to room temperature. No extra effort on the day.
No popover pan? A standard 12-cup muffin tin works fine — the popovers will be a little wider and shorter, but the same crisp-outside, hollow-inside result. A popover pan's tall narrow cups give you the dramatic height — see the Tool Drawer for the two pans worth owning.

Method

Cook's notes

Why they pop: Steam from the eggs and milk expands rapidly in the hot oven and pushes the batter up and out, creating the hollow shell. Everything here — room temperature ingredients, hot pan, no peeking — is in service of that steam.

Don't open the oven. Seriously. The temperature drop will deflate them mid-rise. Watch through the oven window if you're curious.

They're done when deep golden brown — not pale gold, deep golden. An under-baked popover collapses the moment it comes out. If in doubt, give it two more minutes.

Serve immediately. Popovers are at their best right out of the oven — crisp outside, hollow and eggy inside. They soften as they cool. If you need to hold them a few minutes, crack the oven door slightly and leave them inside with the heat off.

Savory or sweet: plain popovers go with everything — butter and jam, roast beef and gravy, or just eaten warm on their own. Add 1–2 tbsp grated parmesan to the batter for a savory version.

Yorkshire pudding: this is the same recipe. Pour beef drippings into the cups instead of butter, heat until smoking, then fill and bake the same way. Traditionally served alongside roast beef.

Wonderful for a holiday meal. Popovers are dramatic, impressive, and almost entirely hands-off once the batter is made — which makes them a surprisingly good choice for Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner, or Easter. Make the batter the night before, preheat the pan while the roast rests, and they come out of the oven just as you're ready to serve.

Make it work for you

Vegan / gluten-free: popovers depend on egg proteins for structure and gluten for chew — neither substitutes cleanly here. This is one recipe where there isn't a reliable workaround. (If you find one that works, tell me.)

Dairy-free: unsweetened oat milk or soy milk works in place of whole milk — the popovers may not rise quite as high, but they will still puff. Use a neutral plant butter or coconut oil for greasing.