This year we decided to have an English themed Christmas dinner, and popovers fit right into that theme. My ancestry is predominantly English, so this is as close to ancestral cooking as I usually come. Popovers are very similar to Yorkshire Pudding, which my mother sometimes made for holidays, but I think popovers are easier to make, as well as being conveniently sized for single servings.

This recipe was adapted from the excellent “The Book of Bread”, by Judith and Evan Jones, which I have had for many years, and is also the source of the Sticky Buns recipe which is a family tradition. This version is quite different from a number of popover recipes, since it uses individual Pyrex cups and starts with a cold oven, but it worked fine.

1 cup (4.33 oz.) all purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

3 eggs

2 Tbs. melted butter

1 cup milk

Put all of the ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and whirl until a smooth batter is made. Use a spatula to scrape the edges of the bowl to ensure that all the flour is well mixed in. Heavily grease 8 5 oz. Pyrex custard cups (or some similar small ovenproof dishes). Apportion the batter evenly into the 8 cups. Put into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees and bake for about 35 minutes, until puffed and golden. Serve immediately with butter and jelly