Brown Sugar Cinnamon Popovers

So I decided the other day to wake up early on Spring Forward day and surprise my wife by making some tasty Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Popovers for breakfast. If you have never had a popover before they are wonderfully light and airy and are just custardy  goodness, and oh yeah they are simple to make! Most of the time you see savory popovers as appetizers or side dishes at restaurants but as a slightly sweet breakfast item they are even better, especially with a little butter and nice cup of hot coffee. The one key thing to popovers is to make sure your main wet ingredients are at least room temp but preferably lukewarm. If you are taking your eggs out of the fridge when you start making these an easy way to warm them up is to put some hot tap water in a bowl and drop them in there for about 10 minutes. Also if you don't have a pan that is specifically for popovers don't worry as you can use a muffin pan instead they just wont get as high when you cook them. And its a good idea plan when you will be serving these as they should be eaten as soon as they come out of the oven as they will deflate. If you think you may want to make popovers on a regular basis though I would recommend getting a popover pan, here is the on I use by Nordic Ware. There are cheaper ones out there that will work just as well but may not last as long. OK onto the popover making!

Ingredients almost already to go!

Everything all mixed up ready to pour and then eat!!

Ingredients

Makes 6 large or 12 small Popovers

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs room temp. lightly beaten

Cooking Spray

2 tablespoons powdered sugar (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees (if you are using a popover pan you should lower your oven rack close to the bottom, if you don't you run the risk of the popovers hitting the heating element in your oven, not good!)

2. Stir together the flours, cinnamon, brown sugar and salt. In a large bowl that is easy to pour out off heat the milk in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until lukewarm, melt butter in microwave as well. Whisk butter, then vanilla and finally the eggs into the milk. After all the wet ingredients are combined gradually add the flour mixture until well incorporated.

3. Once the oven has come up to temp place the popover pan or muffin pan into the oven for 3 minutes to heat it up. When you remove the pan spray the pan liberally with the cooking spray then divide the batter among the cups as evenly as possible filling each about half full (I made only 4 very large ones as you can see)

4. Place pan in oven and cook for 10 minutes at 450 then lower temp to 350 and bake until well browned, about an extra 5-10 minutes depending on the sizes you made. Just keep an eye on them after the initial 10 minutes, these large ones I made started getting nicely brown after only another 8 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar if using and enjoy. Serve immediately before the popovers deflate.