These popovers are ridiculously easy to make and are a major crowd-pleaser. They also gave mea chance to highlight a beautiful California cheese: Fiscalini's San Joaquin Gold. The cheese monger I bought this cheese from described it as "cheddar meets Parmesan" and that was right on - this stuff is nutty, buttery, and firm. I kept shredding a bit for the popovers and then snacking on it before it could even make it to the batter. Delicious. Don't have access to Fiscalini's cheese? Gruyere or a combination of cheddar and parmesan would work too.
Ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup grated cheese (cheddar, gruyere, and Parmesan all work well, as does a combination of them!)
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh chives, roughly chopped
Makes 12 popovers.
Whisk together the eggs and buttermilk until smooth. Add your cheese, half of the melted butter, chives, salt, pepper, and sugar. Continue to whisk until the mixture is of a uniform texture. Add the cornmeal and flour and again--whisk until uniform. Set the batter in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to rest. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and use the remaining butter to brush the inside of your popover pans (muffin pans also work well too).
Fill each cup in your popover pan halfway with batter and bake for 30-35 minutes. No peeking! It is important to not open the oven until the baking is finished. If you need to check on the popovers, try and do so in the last few minutes. The popovers are finished once they've popped over the top of your cups and the tops are a deep golden color. Serve these hot from the oven and eat them immediately!
If you live in the Bay Area and want to taste Fiscalini's cheese or those from other amazing California artisan cheesemakers, check out the first ever SF Cheese Fest on September 18-20, 2015 at Dogpatch WineWorks.
