This recipe is excerpted from Does This Taste Funny? by Stephen Colbert & Evie McGee Colbert, on sale now.

EVIE • We have spent many happy vacations in Maine as a family. In fact, my sister took our son Peter on a camping trip to Maine when he was just nine years old. It was on this trip that Peter discovered popovers. He was very impressed with the “popping over” aspect and immediately learned how to make them from scratch, just so he could see them rise and spill over the muffin tins. His little brother, John, soon joined in. We all love these light and airy popovers. Just one bite, and we are back on the trails of Acadia National Park!

STEPHEN • My first memories of these are not as popovers, but as their British cousin, Yorkshire pudding. When I was twelve, after a long day of tramping around London looking at Beefeaters and gothic arches with my mother and sister Lulu, we sat for dinner at a venerable old restaurant, Simpson’s in the Strand. We were exhausted and taciturn, and the restaurant staff took such pleasant care of us. I remember being lent a child’s-sized tie by the coatroom clerk, as such were required. I remember great beefs on rolling, doomed trolleys. But mostly, I remember the Yorkshire pudding–not really pudding at all, I thought, but warm and comforting, and hollow. I could have crawled inside and nodded off.

Popovers are puffy, warm, and crisp on the outside, and moist inside. They are good for any meal, because pretty much anything is good on them–butter, jam, honey, maple syrup, gravy, pan juices from roast chicken or beef…go nuts.                                                             

Makes 12 large popovers

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the cups and surface of the muffin tin (not popover pan)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, for the bottoms of the muffin tin
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
3 large eggs, at room temperature

Directions

Heat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the lowest position. (Make sure there isn’t another rack directly above, as popovers rise quite a bit.) Even after you hear the ding that tells you the oven is preheated, let it heat for another 10 minutes. Oven temp is key here!

Grease each muffin cup in a 12-cup muffin tin and the top surface of the tin using unmelted butter. Add 1 teaspoon melted butter to each cup. Place the tin in the preheating oven. You will be pouring the batter into the hot cups. 

Sift the flour into a small bowl. Stir in the salt. Heat the milk and the 3 tablespoons butter together in a small saucepan over the lowest heat possible. When the butter is melted, pour the milk mixture into a medium bowl, add the eggs, and beat until a little foamy. Whisk in the flour until the batter is mostly smooth–a few small lumps here and there won’t hurt.

Carefully remove the hot tin from the oven and pour about 3 tablespoons of batter into each muffin cup–they should be about half full. Bake until the popovers are “popped” and deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand in the tin for 5 minutes before serving.

tip–After popping the popovers into the oven, don’t open the oven door for any reason until at least 20 minutes into the baking. Keep the oven light on to gauge doneness.

safety tip–Do not remove the hot popovers with bare hands.