August is my favorite month so far for Twelve Loaves because we are working with herbs. I love them all. I find great joy in preparing a dish and walking to my herb plant boxes in my front yard and snipping a few leaves or bunches of fresh herbs to add to my meals for the day. I guess it makes me feel nostalgic.
My daughter cringes if I use the word vintage. It is a joke now with us and she points out all things vintage to me. It is true. I do feel connected to a simpler time. I enjoy old things. I find myself happiest when I have worked hard all day and then sit down to a meal that I made from scratch using ingredients that I grew.
Popovers are a vintage dish to me. They use basic ingredients that we have had in our kitchens for centuries. They are an American version of the Yorkshire Pudding from England. I usually make them "as-is" but last week I decided to have some fun with them. I wanted to incorporate a fresh herb into the batter and add a bit of cheese to see if they would still be loved by my family with the extra ingredients.
Isabella asked for seconds and thought they were the "bees knees". I guess they were too.
Making anything gluten free from a regular recipe is challenging. I am working with some of the same ingredients but then adding new flours and starches to the mix. Sometimes it works and every once in a while it does not. This time it worked. The outside was crispy, the inside hollow and the top "popped" over the top of the pan, hence we have a great Gluten Free POPOVER! YAY.
I get excited about this stuff because those that have to eat with food restrictions give up a lot of their favorite foods. It makes me happy when I can share a recipe that brings an item they miss back into their diets.
I hope that you will experiment with your own popover version mixing up the herb of choice. Try thyme, rosemary or parsley--or get crazy--and combine all three.
Scroll to the bottom of this post to see my friends recipes too! We have a great selection for Twelve Loaves this month. The highlighted links will redirect you to their pages. If you need help converting a recipe to gluten free, let me know. Most recipes can use a basic all purpose gluten free flour to exchange 1:1 for the wheat based flours.
NOTE: To guarantee the success of this recipe I encourage you to use the volume measurements. I have tried to get the cup measurement as close as possible but using the grams will guarantee the recipe turns out the same each time. The batter is thicker than crepe batter yet thinner than pancake batter. If the batter seems too thick, add a bit more milk. If the batter is too loose then add more rice flour.
Gluten Free Basil Parmesan Popovers
Makes 12
4 large eggs
215g (just under 1 cup) milk
85g (1 cup) tapioca flour
110g (1 cup)white rice flour, fine
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum or guar gum
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons lard or butter, melted (used in bottom of popover pans)
1 tablespoon fresh basil, minced fine
2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan (divided between the 12 popovers)
lard, for popover pan
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl combine eggs and milk. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients and whisk well. Add the two together. Whisk until the batter is smooth.
3. Mince the basil and combine with egg batter.
4. Let batter sit for 15 minutes. While batter is sitting, put a small dab of lard or butter into each popover. If you use butter, adjust time, because it may burn. My pan has 12 popovers. Put pan in oven long enough to heat pan and melt lard, about 5 minutes.
5. Take pan out of oven and ladle the batter into each popover. They should be about 3/4's of the way full. Sprinkle the batter with a dusting of parmesan cheese.
6. Return to a very hot oven and let cook18-20 minutes. Do not open the oven to keep checking on them. This may cause them to not rise or POP.
7. Remove from oven and serve immediately or let cool and refrigerate leftovers. My kids reheat them in the microwave with butter, lemon and powdered sugar.
- Thyme for Beer Bread by Kudos Kitchen by Renee
- Pesto Quick Bread by Rhubarb and Honey
- Basil Buns by Rise of The Sourdough Preacher
- Herbed Skillet Cornbread byMagnolia Days
- Rosemary Grissini by Cake duch*ess
- Rosemary Parmesan Flatbread Crisps by A Shaggy Dough Story
- Herbed Buttermilk Biscuits by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Keema Naan by Food Lust People Love
- Gluten Free Basil Parmesan Popovers by Simply Gourmet
- Pull-Apart Bread w/ Herbs & Seeds by girlichef
- Pesto Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone's posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!
2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.
3. Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this August 2014, and posted on your blog by August 30, 2014.
#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake duch*ess. #TwelveLoaves runs smoothly with the help of our friends.
Thank you to Sherron from Simply Gourmet for hosting this month’s event!
- Written by Sherron Watson
