VeggieTalk

For quite some time now, I’ve been wanting to try making vegan popovers. Since my older son Adam, came home from completing his freshman year in college yesterday, I decided that today was the day—it was pouring rain this morning, I was up really early, and it seemed like just the day to make something different for breakfast.

Popovers rely on egg and high heat for that “popped over” effect—they rise very quickly, pop over the pans, and then collapse as they cool. It’s quite a treat for kids of all ages to observe, then eat and enjoy. So I decided to go with the basic recipe that’s in The Vegetarian Family Cookbook (it’s probably one of less than a handful in the book that isn’t either vegan or that details a vegan version). The only change I made was to replace the 4 eggs with 1/2 package of silken tofu.

So far, so good. But after 15 in the oven, the poor little things just sat there forlornly, not having risen at all. The dough was still doughy, despite the 450-degree oven. My son Evan inquired whether I had put any baking powder in them. I had not, because the original recipe doesn’t call for it. “Don’t you think you should have put some baking powder in them, since there’s no egg?” asked my younger son, who we affectionately call “the vegan cop.” Indeed I should have.

Not wanting to end this adventure in disappointment, I made another batch, this time with a tablespoon of baking powder for good measure. This time, they did “pop over,” but the only difference is that they don’t have the air pockets inside that traditional popovers do, nor do they collapse. They do taste remarkably like popovers, though. My older son Adam just got up at the reasonable time of 10:30 a.m. (he was planning to sleep most of the day, to recover from a week of finals)—maybe he smelled the popovers. Here’s the recipe, hot out of the oven:

Vegan Popovers

Makes 12

Classic recipes for popovers often call for popover pans. I don’t have any, nor do I know anyone who does, so muffin tins work just fine.

• 1/2 (12.3-ounce) package firm silken tofu
• 1 1/2 cups rice milk or plain soymilk
• 2 tablespoons safflower oil
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Nonhydrogenated margarine and/or all-fruit preserves

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Combine the silken tofu with the rice milk in a food processor, blender, or container with immersion blender. Process until smoothly pureed. Stir in the oil.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir together well.

4. Pour in the tofu mixture and stir together until smooth.

5. Divide the batter among 12 well-oiled nonstick muffin tins.

6. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden and puffed up. Don’t open the oven door during this time! Remove from the oven, and just as soon as they can be handled, serve warm with margarine and/or preserves.