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I was a Popover Failure.

Until last night…

popover success

By now, most of you who are reading this know that I have a tendency toward the obsessive when it comes to certain things. Most of the time it shows up when I’m troubleshooting some tech problem — I simply must find a solution. But this trait can rear its head in other areas as well.

I don’t like to fail.

And I was a popover failure.

popover failure popover puck

It has been eating me to the core. Oh, I have read every @#$%# damn thing there is to read about popovers and still mine refused to “pop.” I googled: “I am doing everything right and popovers won’t pop.”

For those less industrious than I who want to know what those “everything right” things are, here is a brief rundown to “guarantee” popover success:

  • Preheat your popover pan
  • NEVER open the oven door while baking
  • Use room temperature ingredients
  • Use the freshest eggs possible

I did all those things every single time. My eggs were laid the same day for crying out loud. Still, my popovers refused to rise.

popovers won't pop

Until last night…

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Why this sudden popover angst, you ask?

Because I asked for (and received) popover pans for my birthday. Years ago, I made popovers in my muffin pans, which are a larger size than most. I made them with no problems. This was pre-internet and I had no idea popovers were even considered temperamental. I might have had one or two issues, but I don’t remember it being a huge deal. The last several times I made them, using the same recipe, in the same pans they didn’t work. I gave up on popovers.

Fast forward to one month ago. I saw a picture of some insane popovers on food52.com right at the time my family was asking me for birthday ideas. Popover pans. The key to popover success. Done.

As soon as I got them, and with the help of my new chicken friends, I set about to blow Charlie’s mind with some wicked good popovers.

Nope. Middle age. Popover paunch. Popover pucks. “What changed from my younger years,” I asked myself. “Why won’t they rise?” …I googled until my fingers were raw.

“No. I am doing everything right, dammit!” I exclaimed. (Why can I not remember how to punctuate dialogue? I really don’t care enough to google that, mind you. My obsessive tendencies are apparently very narrow….)

I conducted various unscientific experiments. (my German Pancake is a lot like a popover and IT rises… this flour from Costco is strange… when I make bread I always need more water than recipes call for…) I thought long and hard about this…

Before I progress, I’d like to comment on a couple of the aforementioned items:

Strange flour from Costco. About a year ago, I was delighted to find Unbleached All Purpose flour at Costco that was not in 25 pound bags. I bought it and immediately found it to be strange. I talked to a couple friends who had also bought it and they, too, had issues with it. It was more like whole wheat than white, and yet the bag said nothing other than “All Purpose Unbleached White Flour.” This past week, my mom picked a few things up at Costco for me while she was there, flour being one of them. I assumed the flour I bought last year must have been a fluke. However, this new flour says “All Purpose Unbleached White with ‘Ultragrain‘.” Well at least they are now labeling it correctly. Turns out that this white flour contains 30% whole wheat. Which explains a lot. Not that whole wheat is bad — of course not. But it definitely does not behave the same way.

I need more water in my bread recipes. Over the years I’ve learned that when making bread using volume measurements vs weight, I need more water in my bread. I’m not food scientist, but I would venture to guess that our Minnesota flour is more dry due to our winters. I have always compensated by adding more water. Can anyone verify this? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

My German Pancake rises. The recipe for German Pancakes is very, very similar to popovers. It gets baked in a cast iron pan. I do nothing special for this recipe; I do not worry about room temp ingredients, I don’t preheat the pan… and it works. Why? Why why WHY? But I did notice that the batter is much runnier than all the popover recipes I have tried. Could this be the answer to my popover problem??

Which brings us to last night.

finally figured out why popovers won't pop

Finally. I had REAL All Purpose flour and not some hippy-ass ultra grain blend. I had four fresh eggs. I had a husband and son who were home to prevent me from eating all the popovers — for it seems to make no difference to my palate whether they rise or not…

I looked at my German Pancake recipe and three other recipes. The discrepancy in egg/milk/flour ratios across different recipes is pretty incredible. I sort of made my own up, trying hard to mimic the pancake recipe while making just the right amount for six popovers. And when I finished the math I realized my recipe was identical to the updated food52 recipe (did I mention that? oh, whoops! The first recipe that was posted was wrong and has been tweaked due to commenter complaints…). The only difference was that my recipe used 1/4 cup less flour. Here it is:

Jennie’s Popover Recipe for MINNESOTA Flour

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 t salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 medium (or 3 extra large) eggs
  • 2 T melted butter

Put popover pan into oven and preheat to 425 degrees.

If possible, use room temperature ingredients. I never plan that far ahead, so I put the milk in the microwave for 1 minute on 50% power. If my eggs aren’t fresh out of the coop, I put them in hot water for about 10-15 min.

Whisk eggs and milk together in a large spouted measuring cup (I use an 8 cup pyrex). Measure 1 cup of flour and carefully stir salt into the flour which is still in the measuring cup (less things to wash people!). Gradually add the flour to the eggs & milk whisking constantly. Batter should be very runny and mostly smooth — think of the consistency of heavy cream. A few lumps are ok. Add melted butter and stir well.

When oven is heated, take pan out and spray with nonstick or grease with butter. (My popover pans are nonstick so I just used Pam. If yours are cast iron, use butter). Fill cups to just over halfway. Bake at 425 without opening the door for 20-25 minutes.  Pray.

After they have popped and are done, slit the tops with a knife and either serve immediately or return to the oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees to preserve the ‘pop.’

finally figured out why popovers won't pop

I am convinced that my failures were mostly due to the flour to egg to milk ratio. My batter was not runny enough. Nowhere online did I come across this as being a reason they did not pop. I read that the consistency should be “runny” and “like pancake batter,” but those descriptions are not very precise. I also believe that stupid Costco flour played a part, however I used that flour for the German Pancake and it worked just fine, so… If you are having problems with popovers not popping, try decreasing your flour or adding an egg if you have already tried all the other tricks and you are sure that, like me, you are doing everything right.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Funny Jen!! Tim and I have been having popover wars for years! He has perfected them (most of the time 😜) using the Williams Sonoma recipe!

  3. Hey Chris! So sorry: I’ve fixed the recipe. It’s 20-25 minutes!
    Kathy: …well he’s never made them for ME! #mustrectify

  4. I made popovers back in the early 70’s and like you did not know they were tempermental….THey always turned out. Used the recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook. Recently tried them. NO POP…they didn’t even rise. Daughter and I tried them on Christmas day. Same thing. SO I am sending her your blog and will try them again! But….what is different int he last 30 some years to cause this? WEIRD.

  5. Thank you. I have been on a popover losing streak. No More! This morning, I made two consectutive batches…no pop. I was deflated (pun intended). Then, determined to keep going, I found your blog and magic! Now, I head off to a nap with fluffy, airy dreams in my future.

  6. I followed your recipe with high hopes. Sadly, no pops. Very disappointed. Maybe there is a correction to your recipe for cooking at an elevation of 7,400 ft. What would you suggest?

  7. Sorry Dominic! flat popovers are a DRAG!! and, no, I have no experience with baking at elevation. But check back in a year or so, as we plan to build a home in eagle, co. I’m guessing I will have a steep learning curve…

  8. So, what BRAND of flour do you recommend? I too made perfect popovers for all the years my kids were growing up but now have one failure after another! I will try yours.

  9. Hi Donna! my unbleached AP brand varies, but is usually Dakota Maid (I think that’s right. It might be Dakota Mills? I have it in a container and tossed the bag). Sometimes I buy Pillsbury unbleached AP. Where do you live?

  10. Thank you for this post! I am a fellow Minnesotan who has also struggled with getting my popovers to rise. I use my dad’s old, old, old cast iron popover pan preheated as I gave up on the non-stick popover pan I had because I could never get them to release no matter how I preheated or didn’t preheat or greased it. Apart from filling the cups too full, I believe my issues mainly stem from wanting to make 100% whole wheat popovers (we try not to eat any white flour) and to make matters worse for rising purposes I only use heritage and ancient wheats. Your comments about why you could get your Dutch babies to rise but not popovers to rise TOTALLY hit home. I successfully get 100% whole wheat einkorn to rise every time for my Dutch babies but not my popovers, and that batter always seemed runnier than all the popover batter recipes I have tried which have been, by the way, all specific to whole wheat or at least a whole wheat blend. I tried your recipe first with 100% whole grain White Sonora wheat and three eggs (laid in the last two days) and they didn’t rise. Then, still with the whole White Sonora, I went to four eggs (even though I don’t consider my chickens’ eggs to be just medium) and BOOM, it worked! I made sure the whole, raw goat milk and eggs were at room temperature, filled the preheated cups about half way full (ended up with 17 popovers that way!), and I went 425 degrees for the first 20 minutes and then without opening the door turned the temperature down to 350 for another 10 to 15 minutes. Tomorrow morning I will try 100% whole grain einkorn wheat and see if that works too. I was so excited this morning that I finally had hollow, high, happy popovers that I even went all out and made homemade whipped butter with some local maple syrup mixed in, now my kids will always expect that, ugh 🙂 Cheers and thanks from Glencoe!

  11. Ugh! I made the most insanely wonderful popovers using the recipe printed on the popover pan box. Perfection. The next weekend I tried again- utter failure. I think I may have filled my flour bin with weird Trader Joe’s flour, so I tried again today with Gold Medal. Fail. I’m about to throw out this dumb pan – it appears to be single-use.

  12. I have also been on a Popover quest, years ago they popped 80’s of the time, even when I used a cupcake pan. The last year and a half I have had flat ones time and time again.
    I am trying your recipe now, but I am also wondering about oven placement, mine are in middle rack but something is niggling in the back of my head that maybe they are supposed to be on bottom/ lowest rack???
    Fingers crossed this works. I’m in Pennsylvania so thinking not to different from a Minnesota, elevation wise that is.

  14. Thank you, thank you! When I read your blog I was laughing so hard that I had to read it aloud to my husband who said, “oh my gosh, that was YOU last night!” (Including the expletives). I made about 8 versions with no luck. I, too, googled my fingers off and Woke up this morning thinking more liquid, perhaps in adding extra egg. I decided to google a bit more and came across your recipe. It worked! I was dancing in the kitchen! I do find it odd that we all (you, me and multiple comments below) did these successfully for years and then had trouble later. Oh well, makes success all the sweeter. Thanks again!

  15. That’s so awesome Deb! I’m canoodling the idea of writing on my blog again and comments like your inspire me. Mostly I just want to make people laugh and failure seems to be the best conduit for that, eh?? Good popovers in between are helpful.

  16. Oh. My. GAWD!! I am no longer a popover failure. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for this informative and entertaining post.

    I had good success with popovers until all of a sudden they just didn’t pop. It was weird. A total mystery. Then I found your post and followed every suggestion and tip. Voila’…perfect popovers. You rock, Jennie!

  17. I too have made popovers with no problems for 30 years. We moved to Fl. 5 years ago and they haven’t popped completely since! We had guest for dinner last night and once again half a pop!!. I’m on a quest to solve this problem and am going to try your directions immediately. I WILL win!!

  19. After making my first batch of popovers in a couple of years, had to come on here and search “popover fail” because they are horrible! Then I remembered that the flour in my canister is ‘self-rising,’ the result of an unnoticed selection while grocery shopping in a rush. I NEVER use self-rising flour. I do prefer real, non-messed-with unbleached white flour, none of that …what did you call it…hippy-ass…stuff. (Same with my milk; do not try to sell me jazzed-up filtered, higher-protein, lower lactose milk. I want mine the way it came from the cow as closely as possible. My instinct is to just make another batch with the right flour but I’m running out of time so that will have to wait. Popover fail? Feels like failing kindergarten…

  20. I’ve been making popover for 45 years
    All of a sudden no popping.i first started
    Making in San Fran . Then moved to Florida . Never made a batch that failed . I was known as the popover queen .
    Three years ago I moved to northern California elevation 3200 ft I made several batches and they were perfect.
    All of a once again no matter what I do
    They just don’t pop. I did get a new stove . I think for me it must be the weather .

  21. Jennie,
    thank you so much for this post!
    I am a Minnesota girl…ok, old lady…lived here all my life and love it, even most of the Winter.
    I found your post yesterday after yet another failed popover attempt. I loved your story, as it is the same as mine with the dutch baby success, but not the popovers. I was even thinking about what the difference might be….hmmm.
    Thank you for all your research! It paid off for me this morning with pretty good success. They are not quite as high as the ones pictured, but so much better than I have been doing don’tshya know! Uffda!
    Again, thank you ever so much

  23. I had to laugh at your post, I too am on a mission to figure out why my popovers, once perfected, are no longer turning out for me., and I am using the exact SAME recipe.
    I am cleaning my oven as I type since the last batch of popovers was an epic fail., again.
    I had a puddle of butter on the bottom of my oven and can tell by the drips in the back of the oven that the steam plastered the butter everywhere. My last 2 attempts in making popovers turned out brutal. They stuck to the pan, where before they came right out, they didn’t pop, but rather looked like dense cupcakes. WHAT am I doing different? I am wondering if my oven temp. is off.

    I have popover tins, I would make 8 huge popovers, they would come out airy, a nice brown color and just delicious!

    I am going to keep trying to make them until they turn out perfectly.

    I plan to use your recipe and special techniques in preheating the pan while mixing up the batter. Instead of using my popover tins, I will use cupcake tins..see if that works.

    I just canNOT understand how they are no longer turning out when in the past they turned out perfectly! SO frustrating, especially when you open your oven to remove the popovers and smoke pours out along with them!!!!!!

    Thank you for the ideas and for the recipe!!!!!

  24. These posts are so interesting. I have made popovers over the last 40 years, not often, but never had a problem. They always popped. I now live at 6,500 feet where recipes usually rise more and faster. I made popovers tonight with the special pan heated, eggs warmed but I admit the milk was not warmed. Anyway, the popovers did not pop at all. I used AP flour. I might try your recipe in the future.

  25. Nice to know I’m not alone. Perfect popovers for years using recipe on box for non-stick popover pan. Today? Freaking solid muffins? rolls? biscuits? Don’t know what to call them, solid inside and NO POP! Have a new stove, temps on ceramic top seem to be off, wonder if oven temp is not accurate. Time to call the repairman while still on warranty. First time in 30 years having an epic failure. Perhaps the Walmart flour? Always used Gold Medal in the past. Hmmm… Will try again, or not–someday.

  26. You are so right! After much experimenting with recipes from various authorities yielding mediocre results, I read your post. You nailed what others missed — most recipes have too much flour. The excess flour weighs down the liquid ingredients. Thank you! Your help worked wonders.

  27. I also am suffering from Popover Failure Syndrome after decades of beautiful luscious popovers. My failure is so complete that my grandchildren have named them PopUnders and have (quelle horreur!) grown to prefer that way!! I may never survive the shock…but I am determined to correct my failures and create beautifully pooped popovers, by trying your recipe. I will keep you posted.

  29. OMG…SUCCESS after 30+ years. I can’t believe it. But One question. They were a little bit thicker/ doughier than I want. Any suggestions? Thank you so much you good cooker you 🙂
    Oh I onlu cooked for 20 min., could that be it?

  30. I also googled this problem and just now came across your post. I too live in Minnesota and when I first started making popovers I never had a problem. Now they are always dense and don’t rise. I wonder if something has changed about the makeup of flour these days…. Today I tried them using the original Dayton’s Oak Grill recipe and they were so bad I threw them out. 🙁 Anyway, thank you for posting this! I am going to try your recipe next time.

  31. OMG, I had the same experience as others! I used to be a decent baker and always made delicious popovers, until about 20 years ago. There must be a conspiracy or something going on. I recently made popovers from a famous chef and again, fail. I found your website, and tried once again with your recipe, and…I literally was shocked, they turned out! Thank you for helping me not be a loser grandma in the baking department!!!

  32. I’m so glad this is working for a lot of people! I would LOVE LOVE LOVE if some food scientist landed here and explained to us why old recipes no longer work but this one (mostly) does! Changes in flour? I swear… i need to know.

  33. Found you all because like so so so many before me, I hadn’t made popovers for years (! maybe 25 😳).

    There’s a very interesting theme – flour. A lot has changed in our food supply chain in that time and significantly since I was a child.

    Jen you bring up a good point. I try to have some semblance of an idea of where most of my food comes from but when it comes to a 5lb sack of flour on the grocery shelf I have no clue. How do you get “local” or regional flour? How do you know you have Minnesota flour?

    Thanks and hopefully the next batch will pop!

  34. I only know the brands that process locally – which doesn’t necessarily mean that the grain is local. I don’t know. I wish someone who was in the industry would land here and chime in at some point. We have a new house in Eagle Colorado, elevation 7000 and that will be like learning to walk again! No idea what higher elevation does to popovers, bread, etc, but I think I’m about to find out!

  35. Jenmenke: I have been having problems getting my popovers to pop. Works just fine about one out of every five tries. The other four are like solid muffins. I am using 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups 2% milk, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 Tbs butter, and three eggs. All at room temp. Pre-heat oven to 425F. Butter the popover cups then place in oven for 2 minutes. Then remove, fill the cups about 2/3 full, then bake for 30 minutes. And I usually get un-popped popovers. Cups too full? Not enough milk??? Add a fourth egg? Oven temp maybe an issue??? Help!!!!!

  36. Hurray!!! I can’t believe my popovers I made tonite were beautiful!! I made them years ago and they turned out good, however, over the last two months, following the instructions very carefully, they were needless to say the size of small muffins. After trying week after week, I ran across your article on the bad flour from Costco. I thought to myself, could it be this easy? Well, I have been using the flour from Aldi’s and I, too, believe this flour is crap. We bought King Arthur today and it made the world of difference! So glad I googled my frustration. Thanks so much for your help!!!

  37. Additional thing to try I picked up from another site is to use a baking sheet below the popover pan. The idea is to increase the heat delivered to the bottom of the popover cups. So far this has made a difference for me.

  38. Well…Ifollowed your recipe to a T and I experienced pop-unders. I was so delighted to try a new technique–heated popover pan. I use King Arthur all purpose flour available here in Maine and have always used it. I’ve been baking pop-overs for 2+ years in my present oven with success. Last 3X a failure. I’ll check my oven temp next. Keeping my fingers crossed !
    Janice

  39. This has been the most gratifying blog to find. I feel like I have found my people. Same tragedies of success followed by failure. Tagged as pop-unders which has made me obsessed with finding the secret. I’m going to try this recipe and all other advice. Thank you. #notalone. #popoverobsessed

  40. I too could not get my pop overs to rise! I used gold medal flour all my life. I switched to King Arthur and bingo, HUGE POPS!!!! It’s the flour!

  41. I had something interesting happen with my popovers recently. I change flour from Walmart brand, which made beautiful popovers, to Gold Medal. The last 3 attempts, my popovers didn’t rise properly. No more Gold Medal for popovers! It works great for everything else, but NOT popovers…argh.

  42. THANK YOU THANK YOU ,,,MY GRANDSON IS BRINGING HIS FINANCE OVER SUNDAY FOR SUNDAY AFTER CHURCH DINNER .. HE HAS BRAGGED ABOUT MY ROAST BEEF DINNERS AND MY POPOVERS FOR MTHS . WEL LTHEY ARE COMING AND SO I WENT AND GOT LOTS OF POPOVER INGRE. AND WENT TO WORK WITH TRIAL RUNS ,,
    WELL THRE BATCHES AND ALL I HAD WAS ,,POP-OVER POOPED
    BEEN READING THESE NOTES FROM YOU GUYS AND I KNOW WHATS WRONG I RAN OUT OF PILLSBURY FLOUR AND BOUT GOLD METAL ,, THATS GOOD STUFF BUT NOT FOR POPOVERS TWO ATTEMPTS TODAY AND BOTH BATCHES POOFED. WHAT AM I GONNA DO TO NOT LET MY BELOVED GRANDSON DOWN .. THIS IS WHAT IM THINKING GET UP EARLY ON SUNDAY AND FIND PILLSBUYS BEST AND I DO BELIEVE THATS GONNA WORK ,,, IM TRUSTING YOU GUYS .. THANKS SETH CARLEY TRUMBULL CT

  43. Thank you Jen! It was the flour! I just switched to King Arthur Bread flour and finally, finally have HUGE, fluffy popovers!

  44. YES!!! Thank you so much for figuring this all out. Made them according to your recipe & instructions for older grandkid’s supper tonight and they turned out perfect! Finally!! I even forgot to put the melted butter in the batter & they still turned out great! I’ve served a lot of popover ‘muffins’, & couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. Your description of the batter to be like whipping cream is key. Thank you again!! Btw – I used King Midas all purpose flour.

  45. Argh, company for dinner and I ended up serving popover ‘muffins’, using the old tried and formerly true Betty Crocker recipe. I have my suspicions, but can anyone clarify…
    Is the flour used bread flour or all purpose? Why would one be better than the other?
    Milk – the recipe adds butter, but in the recipe is the milk skim, whole, or somewhere in-between? I’m wondering if it’s whole, and because I use skim the butter should be increased. Something like that? Anyone got the final answer so I can move on to quantum physics?

  46. @ Dave: no, i don’t think the type of flour really matters – i used to use bread flour for all my breads, but since my kids are gone and we are between two homes I’ve greatly simplified my flour “situation” and I have not noticed any difference. THAT SAID, I do think the brands can give different results, as mentioned in the post as well as by several commenters on this page. I’d focus on fresh eggs and liquid to flour ratio more than the amount and type of fat. Good luck!

  47. Thank you, merci. I have been making popovers for almost 40 years successfully. And then, last year they would not rise. Tried several things and then read your blog. I went to $ store and for $1.00 purchased a small package of bleached flour. Poof, big beautiful popovers. I am setting this flour aside for popovers.🌲🌞

  48. @Dave: Cooks Illustrated looked at the AP flour vs bread flour in their latest issue. Their tests showed bread flour got about a 30% bigger rise than AP flour. Reason is the increased protein in bread flour means more gluten produced, and better elasticity for rising. As an aside, they felt butter in the batter weighed it down and omitted it. Just made my first batch in a muffin tin and popped nicely, but the bottoms were so thin, they left quarter size holes in the bottom of the popovers when I took them out of the pan. I let them sit for about 10 minutes before removing them. Baked at 400 deg, 27 min, 1/2 cup 120 deg milk (1%), 1 3/4 cup bread flour, 3/4 tsp salt and 3 large eggs. Any suggestions?

  49. My daughter and I used the same recipe for years. Always perfect. Just
    plain old muffin pans. Now- hockey pucks. After experimenting 5 Days in a row and much research- Marlene’ Sorosky’s wonderful recipe is fantastic.. And the best thing is you can prepare it the night before or an hour before.. Marlene Sorosky’s Over The Top Popovers.!!!! Wonderful!

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