To make these tasty buns, you must first locate your LP of Teddy Pendergrass’s Turn Off the Lights, with its poetic lyric: Rub me down with some hot oils, babe. Nobody sings it like drunk Paul Rudd in this random, random movie that I do not actually recommend and cannot remember anything about besides this one scene which made me laugh so hard I had to rewind and rewatch probably twelve times before I stopped wiping my eyes. Pouring oil into each cup of the muffin tin, I couldn’t help but sing badly, “Tonight…I’m in a romantic mood….”
Popovers
Makes 6-10 depending on your pan situation
Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon oil (1 tablespoon, plus 2 teaspoons for making in a muffin pan)
In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Whisk the flour and salt together in a small bowl then sprinkle the mixture over the egg/milk mixture. Stir with a spatula until the flour is just incorporated, then add the melted butter. Whisk the mixture together thoroughly until it is smooth with a few bubbles on top. Cover with a clean, dry dish towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
While the batter rests, preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place half a teaspoon of oil in the 6 center cups of the pan (leaving the 3 cups on each end of the pan empty). Place the prepared pan in the warming oven and allow it to heat with the oven while the batter continues to rest. **To make these in a muffin pan, place 1/2 teaspoon of oil in the 10 cups on the outside of the pan (leaving the 2 center cups empty). Continue as normal.
Once the batter has rested, as quickly as you can, remove the popover pan from the oven and divide the batter evenly between the prepared cups. In a standard popover pan, you fill the cup to the top. Immediately place the pan back into the preheated oven and bake the popovers for 20 minutes; do not open the oven door. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 15-18 minutes, or until the popovers are golden brown. Transfer the popovers to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool for 3-5 minutes before serving. Serve hot.
Since I just popped over to DC for the weekend for the AMSA Humanities Institute which promises to be a hoot and a half, I planned ahead and made my popovers before I left. I had never had nor heard of such a thing, but WOW, they are fun to make and tasty tasty. 5 stars. I used olive oil instead of veggie oil, for which I only recommend watching them a little more closely for burn-age. They are like popcorn for giants. Hollow on the inside, they are bread that is almost 100% flakey crust.
Here is the best story regarding “Turn off the Lights.” Rachel and I had just come out of a World Cup match in Durban, South Africa to find no taxis anywhere. It was evening/night and so we didn’t want to walk too far away from the stadium but we walked a block or two away and found a taxi. When we got in the ceiling of the taxi was covered in carpet or something and there were dingle balls as decoration around the edge of the ceiling. There was some romantic lighting and after we told the driver where we were going he turned on Teddy Pendergrass siging “Turn out the Lights.” It was hilarious.
Great buns Rachel!! (Wink, Wink).
Rub me down with some hot oils, babe! Such an awkward song.
LOL at this whole exchange, I love it 🙂 Also, I can’t believe you’ve made it 28 years without having heard of popovers – thank God that changed! Perhaps they are more of a Midwestern specialty?
I’ve made it 28 years without having heard of a lot of things. For example: I recently discovered that pickles are in fact cucumbers and are not their own species of vegetable. There is no pickle plant, the city girl learned rather late in the game. 🙂 There is no end to ignorance, I fear.