I’m a novice baker and one of the few good things about pandemic staying at home is having the time and opportunity to work on my baking skills.
I recently discovered this popover technique which bypasses the preheating and sizzling fat stage. Make the batter, pour into greased tins, put in oven, crank up to 450 and 30 mins later, popovers. It took me a couple of batches to get it down and today’s batch came out pretty good. Light, fluffy, good rise, although in the pic, they had started deflating slightly by time I took the pic.
I love this technique! Less time, less hassle. No more waiting for preheating and handling a sizzling hot pan with boiling fat.
It’s been a few yrs since I’ve made this recipe, but it worked well. According to the author, hot (but not boiling) milk and letting the batter rest for at least an hr reliably lead to good popovers.
His original non cheese one is what actually inspired me to look into it! I’m going to try the cheese versions next! Chef John is great!
Interesting. What I liked about the cold oven technique is the minimal steps and time. No preheating, no waiting for things to boil, etc. I use a big measuring cup to hold and mix everything and for pouring. Make the batter, grease the pans, put in oven, 30 mins later you’re done.
I did find it’s better to err on the thinner side for the batter so I started with less flour and added until the mixture looked right, I really should get a scale if I’m going to get serious about baking,
So from start to finish, it probably takes me 45-50 mins. 15-20 mins prep and 30 min cook. A few things to wash while it cooks and that’s it. I love how fast it comes together.
