Too busy or too tired after a day at work or chasing the children to make dessert?
Popovers, simple pastries that resemble large, inflated muffins but are hollow, come together in almost no time and call for just a handful of ingredients. Even better, the batter can be made the night before. And because popovers aren’t particularly sweet, they work as well for dessert (their fillings can be sweet) as they do for breakfast.
Make the batter in the blender whenever you have a spare five minutes (up to 24 hours ahead of time). Refrigerate it until you a ready to use it (just pop it back on the blender base for a quick whir before using).
For a dessert, heat the oven while you make dinner. As you sit down to eat, pour the batter into a popover pan, pop that in the oven, then go enjoy dinner. By the time you finish, the popovers will be done. Then just tear a small opening and spoon in a filling — I’ve offered a simple mascarpone cream, but use whatever you’d like — and you’re done.
For a second serving as breakfast, save half of the batter for the next morning, then bake up a fresh batch and serve them with jam and butter.
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Cardamom Popovers With Cinnamon Mascarpone and Berries
Hands on: 25 minutes Total time: 45 minutes Serves: 12
For the popovers:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
For the filling:
2 (8-ounce) tubs mascarpone
2 tablespoons honey
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Sliced strawberries or other fresh berries, to serve
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 6-cup popover pan with cooking spray.
To make the dough: In a blender, combine flour, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt and cardamom. Blend until the ingredients form a very smooth batter, about 1 minute. Fill each prepared popover pan cup about halfway with batter. You should use only half the batter in the blender. The remainder can be baked as a second batch or refrigerated for up to 24 hours.
Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the popovers from the pan and use a knife to cut a small hole in the top of each to let the steam escape. Cool slightly.
Meanwhile, to prepare the filling: In a medium bowl, gently stir together mascarpone, honey, lemon juice and zest and cinnamon. When the popovers have cooled just enough to handle, carefully tear an opening in each just enough to be able to spoon in about 1/4 cup of filling. Serve each with sliced strawberries or other fresh berries.
Per serving (using 1/2 cup strawberries per serving): 510 calories (percent of calories from fat, 59), 13 grams protein, 40 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 34 grams fat (18 grams saturated), 175 milligrams cholesterol, 330 milligrams sodium.
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