White Cheddar Popovers

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Fluffy, cheesy, eggy airy popovers are a thing of beauty. Top with some herb butter or fruit preserves for an extra special treat.

If you have never made popovers, you will be surprised how easy they are to make! Just whisk together a few simple ingredients and let the magic happen in the oven. 

The addition of white cheddar adds a flavorful twist to the classic.

I had my first popover this past summer. I was out of town for a small procedure to donate cells for Be The Match.

A quick and totally not food related aside, if you aren’t on the registry it is quick and easy to join. If you are picked to make a donation, they are a total class act organization.

They do a great job making sure everything goes smooth and making you feel comfortable. Anyway… back to the popovers…

For dinner I treated myself to a nice meal. The restaurant seemed pretty proud of its popovers so I decided to try one.

Why not, right? They must be famous for them for a reason.

My meal arrived, a delicious fish dish with brussels sprouts and some sort of root veggie puree. Then there was this giant mushroom of a popover.

It was so big it needed its own plate. Between it and the cinnamon butter it came with, very little of the bread plate was even visible.

It ended up serving as my dessert that night and piqued my curiosity. So when I got a beautiful popover pan from Nordic Ware, I couldn’t wait to give it a try.

They were so much easier to make than I had imagined. You just stir together some pantry staples and spoon the loose batter into the pan.

The heat of the oven makes them grow and brown in the most delicious way.  I really can’t tell you enough how easy they are to make.

Eggs play such an important role in this recipe.  They are a major player in the texture and the only source of rise in the whole recipe.

Since I was new to making my own popovers, I did make at least four batches over several weeks.  I wanted to see which techniques worked best.

You may be able to see from the pictures, that these are several different batches of cheddar popovers.  The basic recipe remained the same, but the technique changed a bit with each time.

To be honest, they all pretty much tasted the same. But by the end I had figured out a bit more on how to get the big mushroomy top.

The keys included a really hot oven, of course. Starting with room temperature ingredients really helped as well.  So did using a little extra batter in each well.

Popovers are best served warm and fresh.  This white cheddar version would be great with an herby butter, maybe a chive butter or even a light garlic butter.

They were also really good with raspberry preserves.  Just give me one and a cup of coffee and my morning is made!

Tips and Tricks for Making Popovers:

• Start with room temperature eggs and room temperature or even lukewarm milk. 
• Nordic Ware suggests either buttering and flouring the pan or using the spray with flour. They recommend against just using cooking spray.
• Mix batter until just combined, don’t over mix. 
• You want to start with a super hot oven. Once they are in, don’t open the oven to peek. 

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