Reason number 47 why visiting Jack in Madison is a good idea— Whole Foods. So, when Ted walked in the house with two Whole Foods grocery bags, I added number 48 to my list— when Ted goes grocery shopping and brings home bacon. Popovers are a Sunday morning favorite and I wondered what would happen if I made a one big popover with bacon, onions and blue cheese. Kind of a riff on Yorkshire pudding, with bacon dripping in place of the beef drippings. It turns out, Sunday morning musings about bacon, blue cheese and popover batter are a good idea. It was a crispy, custardy, bacon-ey pan of goodness.
Bacon, Onion & Blue Cheese Yorkshire Pudding
8 ounces peppered bacon
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
4 tbsp. butter
2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
1 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
2 tsp. dry mustard (I use Coleman's)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
4 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
Preparation
Chop the bacon into 1 inch pieces and cook over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Pour the bacon grease into a 9 x 11 baking dish and set aside. Return the sauté pan to medium heat, add the butter, onions and salt. Cover the sauté pan for five minutes (to sweat the onions) and then raise the heat to medium high and uncover, cook until lightly caramelized, about another 5 - 7 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Whisk the eggs, milk, flour, mustard and thyme, in a bowl, until thoroughly incorporated. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes at room temperature (this is important because it allows the gluten to relax, air bubbles to escape and allows the flour to absorb the liquid). After the batter has rested, place the baking dish (with the bacon grease) into the oven and heat for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, pour in the batter, the onions, blue cheese and bacon. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown.
