Are you using a different flour? Have you been using up less of the flour than you used to? (I.e., is it older?) Are your eggs newer or older? Bigger or smaller? Changed the kind of oil? For me, bleached flour works better than unbleached, and whole wheat pops a little but not to hollow in the middle, I was also thinking your flour might have compacted and sifting might help. The eggs also need to be pretty fresh, IME. Recently, my large eggs seem a bit undersized (they throw in an oversized one or two to make weight), and I might add another, or maybe half. Good luck!

It's like our Yorkshire puddings, I think. I do it by volume. Use 3 identical glasses. Start with the eggs. Plain flour - not SR. I can't see why yours aren't working - unless your flour has been wrongly labelled.

My recipe is similar, except that I use 1-1/8 cups of flour and milk, and I always use three eggs.

I also always heat the pan before adding the batter (possibly not necessary), and I use a special aluminum popover pan:

For me, the pan makes a difference.

Sometime ago, I had to make popovers for a friend who is allergic to gluten .

So I got Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour. and these came out, more airy than using regular flour.

dcarch

I recall there was a long discussion about popovers on this board awhile back...

Did you check your oven temperature? Maybe it's not getting hot enough? IIRC, the recipes I use bake @ 450F, then the temp. is lowered - and I preheat the pan too.

Here's Betty Crocker's recipe, which is one I've used with good success. Mine got brown before the second 20 minutes was up:

Simple Popovers

Ingredients

• 2eggs
• 1cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
• 1cup milk
• 1/2teaspoon salt

Steps

• Heat oven to 450°F. Generously grease 6-cup popover pan or six 6-ounce custard cups.
• Beat eggs slightly in medium bowl. Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth (do not overbeat). Fill cups about 1/2 full.
• Bake 20 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake about 20 minutes longer or until deep golden brown. Immediately remove from cups. Serve hot.

Here is Carol's Popover thread from 2022.

One thing I noticed is that I said I let the batter rest in the fridge for two hours before baking. Have you tried doing that? I'm also not sure that this is necessary, but I've seen it in several recipes.

Here's an even earlier popover thread.

It mentions that you should never open the oven door while the popovers are baking, and I have always followed this rule.

As for the filling question, I often add cheese and cold cuts to mine while they are still hot - usually sliced Provolone and thinly sliced ham. I think bacon might be a good filling.

Well, I'm thinking it's not the recipe because Linda has been making them for five decades. IME, muffininess is from the flour being too heavy for the eggs, whether it it's the kind or quantity of flour or the quantity or freshness of the eggs.

I also make peanutbutter cookie popovers, but it only works with Trader Joe's peanutbutter. It's just peanuts. I've tried other just peanuts brands from the regular stores, and they don't pop. I think they're too oily or something. I've never had Yorkshire pudding in England, but when I look through online pictures, both of the pan sized and individual ones, they're kind of dished on top, some looking fallen and the other's looking like the sides rose but not the center. That happened when I made YPs once, with an English recipe. Whereas popovers usually have a closed hollow topknot, which can be cylindrical or puffbally-ish, like Lars's.

I've always heard that popover ingredients all need to be at room temperature for them to pop. I made them recently with still-coolish eggs and they did not pop as well as other times.

Wondering if this might help, although much is already posted here.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2018/06/14/the-art-and-science-of-popovers

Good article. I love that it includes hydration percentages and protein content.

I disagree with some of that article. I use bread flour, cold eggs, lukewarm milk (powdered milk with water), and I refrigerate the batter before adding it to a hot popover pan. If the pan is hot, the batter can be cold. Actually, I use one cup of bread flour, 1/8 cup of whole wheat flour, 1-1/8 cups of milk (reconstituted dry milk), and three eggs for six popovers. I guess I've been making jumbo popovers - the cups in my popover pan are pretty deep, and I fill them 1/2 to 2/3 full, using a 1/2 cup measuring cup. A muffin pan holds less than a popover pan.

My popovers are always every bit as high as I want them. I do slit them on the side after taking them from the oven so that I can add ham and cheese to them while still hot. For me, this makes a sort of breakfast sandwich. I've never added jelly or jam to mine. Mine are not tough either, even though I use bread flour plus a bit of whole wheat flour.