Festive cornmeal popovers slathered with a flavorful herb honey butter! Perfect way to change up the typical dinner rolls on your Thanksgiving table. These popovers are easy to make and absolutely delicious, bursting with bright herby flavor and a subtle hint of honey sweetness.
Sharing these cornmeal popovers today in hopes of inspiring you to switch up your regular dinner roll recipe for Thanksgiving! We’ve actually never been big on regular dinner rolls for the holiday. We usually do some type of cornbread as our “bread” on the table – whether it be these cornbread muffins or just a big sheet of classic cornbread.
I love the flavor of cornmeal and think it definitely should be part of a Thanksgiving meal, so today we’re adding it to light and airy popovers…and I think it might just be a new tradition.
cornmeal popovers – the details
This recipe is really easy, however, the only downside is that you can’t really make them ahead of time. Popovers do just that in the oven…they pop over the pan! The batter (a simple mix of butter, eggs, milk, salt, cornmeal, and flour) is blended so that a lot of air is incorporated into it, and then it gets poured into a preheated pan so it immediately hits high heat and puffs up. Once these popovers get pulled from the oven, they should be served right away or else they will start to deflate and lose their irresistibly light and crispy texture.
It’s definitely something to keep in mind when planning your Thanksgiving menu. If you’re set on making these cornmeal popovers, try to leave yourself time at the very end to whip them up. Better yet, I would test them out sometime this week so that you know exactly how to make them! That should make it even easier to whip them up at the last minute right before you serve your holiday meal.
All that being said, these popovers are DELICIOUS. The cornmeal adds a unique touch to the batter, with all the real flavor coming from the herb honey butter. Whenever making a flavored butter, I always use at least two sticks (or a half pound) of butter so that there hopefully will be some left over. This butter can of course just be slathered onto the popovers, but I’d also suggest leaving a little bowl of it on the table for flavoring any other dishes that might need a little sweet, herby pop.
And lastly, after a generous spread of butter, I would give these popovers an extra drizzle of honey. It makes all the difference!
PrintCornmeal Popovers with Herb Honey Butter
light & airy cornmeal popovers slathered with softened herb honey butter
yield: 12 mini popovers
Ingredients
Cornmeal Popovers
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ¾ cup finely ground cornmeal
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- herb honey butter (recipe below)
- honey, for drizzling
Herb Honey Butter
- 2 sticks (½ lb) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tbsp honey
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- ¼ cup chopped mixed herbs (oregano, thyme, and sage)
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
Instructions
Cornbread Popovers
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Pour 1 tablespoon of the melted butter into a blender. Distribute the remaining butter into a 12-cup mini popover pan.
- Add the eggs, milk, and salt to the blender. Blend for 20 seconds to combine. Sift the cornmeal and flour into a small bowl. Place the popover pan into the oven and preheat for 2 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the sifted dry ingredients into the blender in two additions, blending for another 20 seconds each. Remove the popover pan from the oven and immediately pour the batter into the pan, filling each cup about ¾ of the way.
- Bake for 25 minutes without opening the oven door, or until the popovers are puffed and golden. Remove the popovers from the oven. Pierce each one in the side with a small knife to help prevent them from collapsing.
- Serve immediately with the herb honey butter (recipe below) and an extra drizzle of honey over top.
Herb Honey Butter
- Combine the softened butter, honey, salt, and a few cracks of fresh black pepper in a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Fold in the mixed herbs and parsley. Keep the butter at room temperature until serving.
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Can I use self rising cornmeal?
Hi Lori! I have never tried this, but I’m assuming it would work well and give the popovers more lift. Let me know if you give it a try! -Kayla
I made these for Christmas and they were INCREDIBLE! I made the butter the day before which saved some time but how far ahead of time could you make the batter and let it sit in the fridge?