Food: Cheddar Thyme Popovers

Last Friday I made cheddar thyme popovers.  It as the first time I'd made popovers in awhile, and they were just as good as I remembered!  So crisp on the outside and light and chewy on the inside (or at least what exists of the inside).  I used an old recipe from my eighth grade home ec class but added cheddar and thyme to it because I was feeling something with a little more flavor (and I also wanted to use up the fresh thyme before it went bad).

The popovers are so simple to make - just a few ingredients: flour, eggs, milk, oil, and salt, plus whatever other flavorings you want to add.  One bowl - that's it!

I love the combination of cheddar (my favorite cheese) and thyme (one of my favorite spices).  We made two batches of the popovers that weekend and put a LOT more thyme in the second batch.  I felt like you couldn't really taste it in the first batch - the second batch had a lot more thyme taste in it.

The clean-up was pretty minimal too.

-One bowl
-Beaters for the hand mixer
-Two measuring cups (you could get away with one if you want to eyeball the cheese or if you want to measure out the flour four times)
-One measuring spoon
-One spatula

So one thing that is missing is a sifter/strainer.  The recipe actually calls for sifted flour, which I did not do.  You could use a sifter (really no clean up) or a mesh strainer (would probably have to clean, depending on your standards).   I also didn't measure my salt (just eyeballed it), so that might be another measuring spoon you would need.  Still - almost all of this can go in the dishwasher (except for the spatula), so clean up was a breeze!

Here's the recipe!

Cheddar Thyme Popovers
1 cup sifted flour
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
bunch of fresh thyme (to your taste)

1.  Preheat oven to 475 F.  Generously grease popover or muffin tin.

2.  Combine flour, eggs, milk, oil, and salt together and beat well with an egg beater or handheld mixer.  Once thoroughly mixed, add cheese and thyme and beat again.

3.  Pour into cups, filling about half full.

4.  Bake at 475 F for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 F and cook for another 25-30 minutes, until nice and brown.  (Recipe says that if you want insides really nice and dry, turn off oven leave pan in oven with the door open for 30 minutes after cooking is finished.)

Couple notes: I would recommend sifting the flour and I would also recommend using a hand mixer or egg beater - this gets a lot of air into the batter and makes them a lot lighter.  The second batch we made was mixed by hand with a whisk and the popovers were much more dense.