Provolone Popovers

Last night I drove to pick up my roommate (Allison) from the airport. She had been visiting her boyfriend in Philly and I decided to make a new recipe as a welcome home. The drive, which was supposed to take 18 minutes (per google maps), took an hour. There was a massive downpour, road construction, misplaced detour signs, an accident that happened three cars in front of me, and deep pools of water that almost submerged my tiny Yaris. Finally, after reaching the point where I was nearly hysterical I made the correct exit and got Allison. She has major anxiety about flying and she told me that she had spent half the flight crying and holding onto the arm of the man next to her (she asked permission). This leads me to my Provolone Popovers. They were delicious and I highly recommend them as the perfect antidote for stressful travel situations.

Here's the recipe (from Gourmet)

1 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, divided

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/3 cup finely chopped provolone

2 Tbsp grated parmesan

1 1/2 Tbsp chopped chives

Luckily, I prepared the batter earlier in the day and it had been chilling in the fridge for a good long time by the time I got home from the airport. After 18 minutes of baking time (@ 425 degrees F) we extracted them from the muffin-pans and bit into them. DELICIOUS! The inside was very moist, and the parmesan and provolone complimented each other beautifully. The outside of the popovers were slightly crispy, which made the inside that much better. Allison and I each ate about 5.

Notes: I ended up substituting shallots for the chives. It worked out very nicely, although I'll have to try it again with chives sometime. It seems like you could probably add a little bit more black pepper to the batter. Also, I recommend filling each muffin tin almost to the top--these babies don't rise very much. I used a mini muffin tin and made 15 provolone popovers. The original recipe says it will make 18--it doesn't if you want them to be substantial.