Puffy Breads

In middle school, one of the recipes we made in Home Economics was kind of a sweet Yorkshire Pudding. I remember really liking it and although I love traditional, savory Yorkshire Pudding, I have quite the sweet tooth. So I decided to try making popovers, since I thought that would be more similar to what I made so many years ago.

For my first attempt, I used this recipe by Alton Brown, food scientist extraordinaire. I did, however, make some modifications. I halved the salt because all the reviews said 1 1/2 teaspoons was way too much. I also used a muffin pan, since we don't own a popover pan. As a result, I ended up with 12 popovers that only needed to bake for about 25 minutes, instead of the prescribed yield of 6 popovers that need to bake for 40 minutes.

My take on Alton Brown's popovers, seen above, were good. They were pancake-esque in flavor, while looking like hollow biscuits thanks to the shallow muffin pan. The dish from middle school however, was a lot more buttery and sweeter. So I decided to give popovers another try.

I settled on these two recipes after extensive googling. The Pepperidge Farm Sweet Yorkshire Pudding pictured above, was closer to what I had in middle school. It was very buttery, but a bit on the salty side since I used salted butter. It also only needed half the baking time -- 13 minutes -- instead of 25. But I find that my baking times are always less than called for in recipes. Sprinkled with some confectioner's sugar, this was a really nice treat and exactly what I was looking for.

The puffy Dutch pancake was the worst of the bunch. With twice the eggs and half the flour of the Pepperidge Farm recipe, it was way too eggy, tasting like a hybrid omelet. We won't be making this one again, but Alton Brown's and Pepperidge Farm's creations have been saved in the recipe binder.