Passover popovers Photo by @foodaism

By Rob Eshman April 10, 2023

Before my mother-in-law Ruth Levy introduced me to Passover popovers, the eight-day holiday seemed to stretch for months. All the avocado, cream cheese, melted Muenster, peanut butter or butter toffee in the world can’t cover up matzo’s cardboard-like flavor. And matzo, like the Dude, abides. It’s well-known that Imodium is nothing more than capsules of finely ground matzo. How much matzo can one Jew eat?

Ruth’s answer was popovers. Many years ago, Naomi and I were visiting Ruth in Brookline, Massachusetts, during the holiday and planned to make a picnic. I envisioned my usual Passover picnic — tuna salad between crumbled shards of matzo. But Ruth mixed matzo meal into a boiling mixture of oil and water, then beat in eggs, and after a few minutes in the oven, she pulled out popovers.

Popovers are Passover pita. They puff up, which shouldn’t be a shock since the technique to make them is the same as for making cream puffs or eclairs. Unlike matzo, they hold sandwich ingredients together: lox and cream cheese, a poached egg and avocado, tuna salad. Warm from the oven, they make a nice dinner roll. Or you can make a double batch, freeze them, and have some on hand until the very end of the holiday.

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The only addition I’ve made to Ruth’s recipe is to process the matzo meal a bit in a food processor to make it finer (you can also use matzo meal cake flour) and I add some turmeric, which deepens their color — and maybe even mutes the flavor of matzo.

Passover Popovers

2 cups water

1 cup oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups matzo meal

1 teaspoon turmeric

7 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12-16 cup muffin tin.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine water, oil, sugar, salt and turmeric. Bring to a rolling boil.
3. Add matzo meal all at once. Turn off heat and beat well with a spoon or whisk. Beat until the mixture comes away from the sides as you stir. If the mixture looks too soupy, turn on the heat to medium and stir to evaporate some liquid.
4. Remove from heat and let cool for about 10-15 minutes. Beat in one egg at a time, making sure each egg is incorporated until you add the next.
5. When all the eggs are incorporated, spoon into muffin tins. Each should be about ¾ full. Don’t worry if some are near the top.
6. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave for another 10 minutes undisturbed.
7. Remove and unmold.

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