So, Mother’s Day is tomorrow. Normally I would buy my mom flowers and either take her out for brunch or cook her a delicious meal at home, but…my mom is currently vacationing with my dad in China. Based on our phone calls I gather that she is hanging out with friends, eating delicious 10 course meals, drinking fine teas, and getting foot massages daily (I think they only cost $5/hr or something crazy like that). Tough life!
While I’m a little sad that we won’t get to celebrate Mother’s Day together like we usually do, it’s good to know my mom is being properly pampered. And, even though she isn’t around, I can still cook and eat a delicious Mother’s Day brunch for her, right? It’s the thought that counts…
Despite her love of sweets and eggs, my mom isn’t really a breakfast person. She prefers to go straight into lunch and eat all kinds of yummy, savory things. Crab cakes, for example. The woman is absolutely wild for crab. She orders it every single time we go out to eat. So, my first thought was to make a crab-based breakfast. Like my Eggs Chesapeake, for example. But, I don’t have any crab in the house, so I decided to make something based on her second favorite food: bread. My mom has been known to do some serious damage to a bread basket.
Have you ever had a popover? It’s kind of like a cross between a bread roll and a muffin, and it’s really good. I served my popovers piping hot, with honey butter, orange butter, and strawberry jam, and it was probably one of the best breakfast/brunches we’ve ever had. The popovers themselves are fluffy and delicious, and are an absolute revelation when slathered with flavored butters. I personally liked mine best with the honey butter, but Dan preferred his with orange butter and jam. I’m including both recipes here, so you can decide which one you like best yourself. (FYI, they’re both yummy!)
Popovers (From a Hannah Swensen recipe, found in the Key Lime Pie Murder)
Ingredients:
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs by hand until they are a light, uniform color (but not yet fluffy) – about 1 minute.
- Add milk and whisk until well incorporated.
- Add flour and salt, then stir with a large spoon or spatula until all the flour has been moistened and incorporated.
** If you’re busy in the morning, you can make this batter the day before and store the bowl, covered, in the fridge overnight. - Divide batter evenly between the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin. Cups should be filled almost to the top.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until popovers are puffy and golden-brown.
** Do NOT open the oven to peek at your popovers while they are baking, or they will collapse. - Take pan out of the oven and pierce the top of each popover with a sharp knife to release the steam.
- Let pierced popovers stand in the pan for a minute or two, then tip them out into a napkin-lined basket.
- Serve warm, with regular butter, flavored butter, jam, jelly, or cream cheese.
Honey Butter (Also from the Key Lime Pie Murder)
Ingredients:
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 tbsp honey
Directions
- In a mixing bowl, mix together honey and softened butter until mixture is uniform.
- Scrape honey butter into a small serving dish/bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
Orange Butter (Also from Key Lime Pie Murder)
Ingredients:
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 tbsp frozen orange juice from concentrate
- 1 tsp orange zest
Directions:
- In a mixing bowl, mix together orange juice concentrate and softened butter until mixture is uniform.
- Add orange zest and stir.
- Scrape orange butter into a small serving dish/bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
These look just fantastic!!!
Thank you!
I made these, and they were delicious, but they had a weird flat top and definitely didn’t look as pretty as yours! Should I have used self-rising flour? (I’m a pretty amateur baker…) Despite them looking strange and not all of them rising well, they were still super tasty (I may or may not be obsessed…), and I LOVED the honey butter!!! I made honey butter all the time as a kid, one serving at a time, but it’s great (and dangerous) to know the proportions for a whole stick! 🙂
Hmm, I didn’t use self-rising flour, so I’m not positive why yours turned out differently. Although technically I think traditional popovers are supposed to have kind of a strange flat-yet-poofy-and-uneven top, so yours are probably more authentic than mine! And I totally know what you mean about the honey butter…I am going to eat it on EVERYTHING from now on.
I’ll just have to try them again, and again, and again, until I figure it out… it’ll be the tastiest experiment ever. 😉
I love your blog, btw. Thanks for all the great recipes!!