When you're an early bird living with a night owl in a loft apartment without many walls or doors, you spend a lot of early morning hours creeping around like a cartoon burglar. I've become really good at getting dressed in the dark and watching tv at a barely audible volume but cooking quietly remains a challenge. I love it when I find a recipe that allows me to spend some early morning quiet time in the kitchen without waking sleeping beauty and popovers are just the thing.

Popovers seem to be a forgotten baked good but I'm ready to champion their comeback. They require only a few basic ingredients, are endlessly customizable, and are downright fun to make. I like them plain for breakfast, smeared with salty butter and jam, for brunch alongside soft scrambled eggs, or at dinner, dunked into a soup or stew. If you want to take them in a savory direction, black pepper and parmesan or a handful of whatever herbs you've got laying around are delicious additions.

The thing that makes popovers fun is the "pop" or rise they get in the oven. For me, the thrill of seeing an inch or two of batter transformed into a towering popover has yet to get old. As long as you stick to a couple of basic rules, getting your popover to pop is easy. First, make sure your milk and eggs are at room temperature. If you're short on time, microwave the milk for a few seconds and run the eggs under warm water to warm them up. Second, don't open the oven while the popovers are baking. Easy breezy.

There are many popover recipes out there in the world and with lots of variation in cook time and ingredients. I use Alton Brown's recipe. It comes out perfectly every time (as long as you follow the rules above) and it makes a great blank canvas for adding your own flavors. He recommends using a blender to mix the ingredients but I just dump everything into a glass measuring cup and give it a quick whisk.

If you're looking for a popover pan, I use this baby.

Happy baking!