Breakfast apple popover (and a talk about “ratios” in the kitchen)
| April 20, 2011 | Posted by ameliaps under apples, breakfast, dessert, sweets, Uncategorized |
Sometimes we get so bored of our breakfast routine in our house, so I try – on occasion – to change it a bit and add a pinch of creativity to get everyone excited, especially if it is a middle of the week day.
Yesterday morning I found 3 wrinkled, old-looking, forgotten golden delicious apples in my vegetable drawer in the fridge…so I decided to make a quick dessert with them.
Preface: I have been reading Michael Ruhlman’s “Ratio” book. Such a great concept, glad someone thought about it. There is a science in cooking and Ruhlman illustrates the formulas behind the basic recipes. Once you have those basics – this is especially important in baking – you will never need a cookbook again…you can just manipulate the ratio and create anything your imagination whispers.
Listen to Ruhlman explain all about recipe ratios, here on his blog.
I think we should all be “freed” of cookbooks and learn to cook intuitively, from an “alphabet” of recipe rules. This would make everyone’s life happier and simpler.
How easy will your life become once you know that the basic pasta dough is 3 parts flour : 2 parts egg, the classic vinaigrette is 3 parts oil : 1 part vinegar, and pound cake is 1 part butter : 1 part sugar : 1 part egg : 1 part flour? My favorite ratio? Cookies! All you have to remember is 1-2-3 (1 part sugar : 2 parts fat : 3 parts flour, plus flavorings, baking powder and/or eggs for texture).
My next goal is trying to master about 10-15 basic recipe ratios that I can freely elaborate on and modify with a variety of ingredient additions. I will also start providing you with measurements in various formats (US, UK and Metric), so that you can choose what works best for you. I like using this or this measurement converter, which both adapt the conversion based on the ingredient (1 cup of flour does not weight the same as 1 cup of sugar!).
One of the basic ratios Ruhlman provides in his book is the ratio for popovers. His ratio is 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1 part flour (for example: 8 oz. milk = 1 cup + 1 oz. melted butter; 4 oz. eggs = 2 eggs; 4 oz. flour = 1 scant cup). With that in mind, I set off to find a good “formula” for a sweet popover batter. I tried Michael’s ratio initially, but since it was breakfast and since I needed the recipe to hold together more tightly because of the apples addition, I increased (actually doubled) the amount of egg in the batter and gave it a bit more “substance”. The recipe below is inspired by Ruhlman’s popover ratio (2 parts liquid : 1 part egg : 1 part flour) and adapted from the joy of baking.
This process was also lots to fun for the whole family because the kids are avid science lovers and it gave us a chance to use the kitchen as a laboratory and have a simple chemistry and math lesson, as we kicked off the day!
Are you a recipe follower or a recipe creator?
| Breakfast apple popover |
|
- Sautéed apples:
- 3 small golden delicious apples (about 1 pound or 454 grams), peeled, cored, and cut into thin slices
- 1 oz. (2 tablespoons, 30 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 oz. (2 Tbsp., 30 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp apple pie spice, ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg
- Sweet popover batter:
- 2 parts liquid (~6 oz.) >>> 4 oz. milk (1/2 cup, 120 ml) + 1 oz. (2 tablespoons, 30 grams) melted butter + 1/4 oz. (2 tsp.) vanilla extract
- 2 parts egg (~6 oz.) >>> 6 oz. (3 large eggs, 3/4 cup beaten eggs)
- 1 part dry ingredients (~3 oz.) >>> 2 oz. (1/2 cup, 65 grams) all-purpose flour + 1 oz. (2 Tbsp., 30 grams) granulated sugar + 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
- In a large (9-10 inch or 23-25 cm) heavy ovenproof skillet, melt the butter then add the apple slices, the sugar, and the spices.
- Toss and sauté the apples until soft bubbly and caramelized, just a few minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the sweet popover batter.
- In a blender, mix and process all the popover batter ingredients for about 1 minute, until smooth and velvety.
- Pour the batter evenly over the sautéed apples.
- Bake about 20 minutes or until puffy.
- IMPORTANT: Do not open the oven while it is baking or it might deflate. Be VERY careful and wear oven mitts when pulling it out of the oven!
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Oh yes, this looks like the most wonderful breakfast! Beautiful recipe!
Brian: it’s surprisingly fast to prepare, light and delicious, even for breakfast
This looks very good. I do like the Ruhlman perspective on cooking.
It is a logical one, Denise…I find!
yummy! how can you go wrong with the correct ratio? that apple tart looks perfectly balanced!
Paola: balanced is a good word for it: not too sweet not too heavy, just “Goldilocks” right!
Your post makes me laugh (and the apple popover looks delicious!). I never understood the American system of measuring volume, which seems to me unnecessarily complicated and not very exact. Working with metric measurements, ratios have always been part of my way of cooking. I found that, naturally, I will remember the ratios of recipes which worked particularly well – does Ruhlmann actually tell you why certain ratios work the way they do and what happens when you change them? If not, maybe that would be a topic to investigate for you?
Hi Amelia,
I think I am becoming more of a recipe creator. When we started moving around in 2005 a lot of my cookbooks ended up in storage. At first I was freaked out because I loved them so much, but in the end, it’s kind of freeing to be able to think of what I want to make, look on line a little and then just create. Plus it makes me less reliant on material goods. Although beautiful, glossy new cookbooks are always nice to have, now when I get a new one, it tends to sit unused!
A breakfast popover sounds wonderful! I am big on breakfast so I will give it a try!!
Nicole: I am like you… I love perusing my cookbooks but usually never follow a recipe. I look at books for future inspiration. I see something and store it in memory for the future and maybe it comes back later to me in a different form. I find it very relaxing to read cookbooks and culinary theory/history books in bed.
I’m a little bit of both. I like to cook and bake mostly from ratios but sometimes there are recipes that people have raved about that I have to try verbatim.
Sylvie: it’s a bit like paiting…Raffaello and Leonardo became very good at copying others’ work and then they took off and found their own style. I find that similar with recipes. I try to make a few from chefs I admire so I can master the technique and then I make it my own some other time by adding my own ingredients and changing the procedure to my preference. I think you need a bit of simulating, a bit of interpreting and lots of imagination in the kitchen!
Oh this is excellent and looks delicious. I can’t wait to try it. The ratio is how our mother’s learned to make everything, and I never thought about how all encompassing it is. Really excellent, as always Amelia. Five stars for you… and I’m sure the recipe… will report.
I’m a fan of Ruhlman’s book! This book, in combination with The Flavor Bible (by Karen Page and Andrew Durenburg), will give you endless creative possibilities, recipe-free. I would consider myself more of a “recipe adapter,” and both of these books have given me the confidence to do so. I think I have a few apples hiding out in my fridge drawer too…so thanks for sharing this recipe/ratio and giving me inspiration to use them.
I totally cook intuitively as you know, but never baked because I don’t like following directions and like to make things ‘my own’. I knew there had to be a formula of sorts for baking basic items and complained about it in one of my posts. A very nice reader tipped me off to “Ratios” which I bought immediately. I was fascinated but, oops, life got in the way and I forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.
Joan: intuition is a key ingredient in the kitchen! but it gets trickier with baking, which is more of a science than an art… or a bit of both.
I will have to pick up that book – my husband recently turned me on to Ruhlman’s blog, which I love. I have to admit that I’m a little lost when it comes to baking without a recipe, and it’s something I’d like to become stronger in.
The popover looks sooooo good and perfect.
I am a solid recipe adapter. I get frustrated following a recipe to the letter, but I like to read recipes and cookbooks for inspiration. I was not familiar with the book Ratio, I will check that out. This breakfast apple popover looks lovely, breakfast needs a change-up once in a while.
~Brenda
Great looking recipe. I definitely recommend Ratio – I picked up a copy of it and a digital scale, and have since made his popovers at least a dozen times. Very easy, great on a lazy Sunday morning with some fruit preserves or honey mixed with butter, and it looks like magic to any hungover guests who crashed on the couch from the previous night.
I should add, too, that the ratio concept has saved me when I wasn’t paying attention one time and did 1 part liquid and 2 parts flour… A quick check of the chart, and failed popovers became easy pancakes.