Cherry Popovers

September 1: National Cherry Popover Day

We admit that we spent a little money on a few specialized kitchen gadgets and baking pans over the years for fun cooking projects. Highlander bought a cherry pitter so he could make cherry pies with fresh fruit instead of canned filling. Islander bought a popover pan so she could bake popovers for breakfast or brunch. While both items have come in handy, they are not necessary to make cherry popovers. Use a knife to slice the seeds out of the cherries and use a muffin tin/cupcake pan to bake the popovers. The cherry popovers turn out tasty and terrific either way! Prepare some popovers with a fresh cherry filling for National Cherry Popover Day.

Recipe

(Adapted from Care2)

 Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh cherries, pitted
• ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 ½ cup flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cup milk
• 3 eggs
• powdered sugar

Directions

Pit the cherries and set aside. Alternatively, slice out the seeds and dry the cherries with paper towels.

Melt the butter. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and milk. Pour in the melted butter and stir until smooth. Beat the eggs into the batter. Fold in the cherries. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Butter the wells and top of a 6-cup popover pan (or a 12-cup muffin tin/cupcake pan). Fill the wells with the batter about ¾ to the top, leaving room for it to rise and “pop over” the top of the pan. Bake for 20 minutes without opening the oven door, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and invert the popovers onto paper towels to soak up any grease. Arrange them on a plate or bowl and generously sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve hot.

Notes

• The batter yields enough for 8 cherry popovers.
• Instead of cherries, use blueberries as a popover filling. See the sweeter recipe for blueberry popovers on National Blueberry Popover Day on March 10.
• Try cherry turnovers as an alternative to cherry popovers. See the recipe on National Cherry Turnover Day on August 28.
• Search our blog for a bunch of other cherry recipes.