Gorgonzola Sage Popovers

Hellloooo Beautiful.

These bad boys have a delicate, hollow interior and a crisp exterior.  

A savory popover with hints of sage, the perfect complement to a nice pork tenderloin, beef roast, chili or soup, or almost any other meal I can think of! 

Add this to your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner for a really special dinner roll.

The use of a blender in making these popovers makes sure that air is incorporated in the batter, which enables the popovers to blister and give them the beautiful, hollow interior.  

Make sure you use clarified butter when called for, or the popovers will burn.

Gorgonzola Sage Popovers

Makes 6 popovers

Adapted from Chef Joel Brookstein's recipe for Golden Popovers

You will need:

1 cup Milk, room temp (pop in microwave for 20 seconds if straight out of fridge)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, sifted

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp butter, melted

3 eggs, room temperature

2 tbsp clarified butter, recipe follows

2 ounces gorgonzola

10 sage leaves, sliced thinly (chiffonade)

Vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Rub the bottom of a popover pan (or 12 mold muffin pan) with a little vegetable oil. 

2. In a blender, combine milk, flour, salt, and melted butter. Blend, and then add the eggs on at a time while the blender is running. Continue blending until fully incorporated. 

3. Preheat the popover pan in the oven for 3 minutes.  Take the pan out, and use a baster to baste the molds with the clarified butter evenly.  Immediately pour in the batter, filling no more than 2/3 the way.  If you overfill, they will not pop (I think maybe I overfilled a tiny bit to be honest..)

4. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Do not open oven door.  After the 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake another 10 minutes, or until popovers are golden brown.

5. Let cool in pan for a few minutes, and serve while warm. 

Clarified Butter

When making clarified butter, keep in mind that the butter reduces.  So if you use 1 lb of butter, after it's clarified  you'll only have 2/3 lb. Keep that in mind, and make extra for your recipes. 

Clarifying butter removes milk solids and moisture, so it can be cooked at higher temperatures.  You can fry things in clarified butter, and bake at higher temperatures. Use any leftover to fry meats, fish, or use for scrambled eggs. 

You will need :

Unsalted butter, cut in cubes

1. Heat the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until melted.  Let it simmer gently.  You'll see a foam rising to the top.  Do not stir. 

2. The foam needs to be removed.  Use a spoon to skim the foam off. Don't worry about getting it all off.  

3. Line a mesh strainer with a cheesecloth (you can line it with a paper towel if you're really desperate, but you'll lose a good amount of clarified butter too).  Pour the butter over the cheesecloth into a bowl.  Discard solids on cheesecloth.

4. That's it! Your butter is clarified.  Clarified butter can be stored in an airtight container for 3-6 months in a refrigerator.