Zooey Deschanel's Go-To Weekend Breakfast Is Charmingly Delicious
It's hard not to love Zooey Deschanel—from her preppy/retro aesthetic (which is called "twee" FYI) to her quirky quips, it's impossible not to pay attention when she's on the screen. In addition to her Max show What Am I Eating? which premiered back in May, she's recently kicked off an Instagram cooking show with Real Housewife of Beverly Hills star Crystal Kung Minkoff aptly titled Cooking With Zooey and Crystal.
In their first episode, the duo remade a recipe that Zooey holds near and dear to her heart: her mother's popovers. Popovers are a simple, custardy muffin hybrid that deliver a buttery, browned and crisp outer layer, and give an airy and eggy bite on the inside. They're not dense like a muffin nor are they as pull-apart flaky as a croissant, but they're somewhere in between. They're absolutely perfect for slathering with strawberry jam, salted butter or whatever else you've got in your fridge. Portable and poppable enough for an on-the-go snack, but fancy enough for a sit-down dinner with the in-laws, these will have you returning to the bread basket again and again.
After watching Zooey's tutorial, I made the recipe and wrote down some important tips so you, too, can try these peppy popovers for your next fancy pants breakfast. Here's how it went.
Get the recipe: Zooey Deschanel's Popovers
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Ingredients for Zooey Deschanel's Popovers
The ingredients here couldn't be simpler: flour, butter, eggs, milk and salt. The original recipe called for regular milk but I had non-dairy on hand, so I successfully used that. It's important to note that when recipes don't have a lot of ingredients, it's usually a good idea to use the best ingredients you can grab since it will make a difference in the taste of the final product. I used eggs from the farmer's market, pink Himalayan salt, King Arthur all-purpose flour, Plugra unsalted butter and Planet Oat Extra Creamy Oatmilk.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
How to Make Zooey Deschanel's Popovers
Preheat your oven to 425°F and melt your butter in the microwave. Using room temperature ingredients, crack the eggs into a bowl and add milk before whisking well or using a hand mixer. Then, whisk in the salt and cups of flour. When it's well mixed (but still kind of lumpy), set aside.
Prepare your popover pan by spraying with cooking spray, then pouring in a bit of melted butter. Add your batter into the pan, filling each about three-quarters of the way up. Bake for 35 minutes at 425°F or until golden brown and super puffed up. Remove once done and — as suggested by commenters — top with powdered sugar and jelly or pair with roast beef, potatoes and gravy, and enjoy.
What I Thought of Zooey Deschanel's Popovers
Full disclosure: I made this recipe four times. Not because I'm a lousy baker, but because after I failed the first time (using a muffin tin, womp womp), I did some research and wanted to see if all the tips I read online held up. There's nothing worse than setting out to make a fabulous new recipe only to have it come out of the oven and look (or taste) nothing like you expected.
The first time I made these, I used a giant, six-cavity muffin tin because the internet said it was fine. Well, the internet lied because they did not turn out like popovers whatsoever. They came out of the oven like little golden discs and were dense and hockey puck-like. I had a feeling this wouldn't work.
Round two was a standard 12-cup muffin tin. These rose a bit more, and tasted fine, but were still small and not popover-like at all. But they did have a little puff to them.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
The third try was way better as I took a pause in my afternoon to source a proper popover pan. And let me tell you, it was worth it. After filling about halfway up as Zooey says and baking in a hot, preheated popover pan for about 30 minutes, these babies came out of the oven perky and crisp on the outside and custardy on the inside.
The fourth time, however, was the best. The pan (and oven) were extremely hot at this point and I decided to fill my pan three-quarters of the way full with batter and bake for about 35 minutes. I let these cook until they were super golden brown (they could have stayed in a bit longer probably, but I wasn't going to push my luck) and made sure to remove and poke with a sharp knife promptly out of the oven to release steam before cooling completely on a wire rack. These were the best of the bunch, hands down (I should know; I ate popovers literally all day).
These were, indeed, light and custardy on the inside with a pull-apart egginess that was addictive. The outside was a crispy, browned butter shell that caved in from the first bite onward. The popovers themselves have a basic flavor (after all, they're just flour, egg, salt and milk) but they're really the perfect neutral base for anything you want to top them with—butter, jam, cheese, etc. And as a bonus, my house smelled so good from baking these.
Related: This Is the #1 Best Way To Eat Eggs if You Want To Lose Weight, According to a Registered Dietitian
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Tips for Making Zooey Deschanel's Popovers
Use room-temperature ingredients. Your batter should be at room temperature, which means that your eggs and milk should be at room temperature to ensure your final result comes out perfect. I even took it one step further on my fourth go around by warming the milk slightly.
Don't over-mix. To get the best result, you'll want to make sure you don't over-mix your batter. I went for a smooth batter the first two times, and Zooey doesn't mention this in her video, but just like when you're making pancakes, a lumpy batter is a-ok here.
Measure your flour correctly. Many pros recommend the spoon-and-level method for measuring flour, which is second best to weighing it out. On my first try, I was a bit lazy and just dipped my measuring cup in the flour, which might have added too much flour to the batter. Too much flour = dense popovers.
Preheat your pan. A preheated popover pan will help ensure that the batter puffs up properly. Don't skip this step.
Release the steam. This will feel wrong, but you should poke the popovers with a knife when they come out of the oven. This will deflate them, but releasing the steam will help them keep their shape longer and will prevent them from getting soggy on the inside.
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