Light and Airy Gruyère and Black Pepper Popovers
Popovers are one of my favorite baked treats, and these gruyère and black pepper ones are light and airy. And decadent! This recipe is shared in the very first Bread Shop Mystery, Kneaded to Death.Excerpt:The chalkboard had today’s baking plan: Gruyere and black pepper popovers. I’d never actually had a popover, but if the illustration, with its muffin-shaped base and the billowy, full top looked anything like it would taste, I knew it would become a favorite.“You don’t usually make popovers for the bread shop, do you?” I asked Olaya as I tied on my ruffled apron.“Popovers are a quick delight, but are best when they are served warm. So no, I do not carry them normally. Cold popovers, not so good.”“Terrible, in fact,” Consuelo commented. We got right to work, mixing the eggs and milk, then whisking in the flour mixture in three separate stages. Olaya had given us each a popover pan. “It is special for popovers,” she said, pointing to the six individual nonstick popover cups. “The air can circulate around each cup, forcing the batter up, up, up until it pops over the top of the pan. Now, the trick is to fill to nearly the top. None of this ‘fill it halfway’ stuff.”She demonstrated at her own station, filling each of her prepared six cups to within a quarter inch of the top with the heavily peppered thin batter. “Take the cubes of gruyere and plop them in the center.” She fanned her hand across her pan like a game show host. “That is all. Now we bake.”While the popovers were in the high-heat oven, we washed our dirtied dishes. The women chattered on about life after college, baking successes and failures, and the spring weather at the beach. “Tourists are coming,” Consuelo said. “We get more and more each year. Does nobody stay home anymore?”“I need the tourists,” Olaya said. “They make my business.”After a few minutes, the conversation turned to Jackie Makers. “The police, they have found nothing about Jackie’s murder?” Martina asked her sister.Olaya shook her head. “Not that I know of.” …? ? ?Keep Reading Kneaded to Death.