mornings in maine: gluten-free, paleo popovers

Maine. There’s something so understatedly magical about this place that I’ve been calling my heart’s true home since I was a child. The overwhelming sense of ease and immersion into nature, ground this place with a therapeutic quality that quietly inspires and refreshes even the weariest of souls.

I’m spoiled rotten to be able to have a place like this to return to. A place that calls me back again and again, each time, never long enough. One day, I keep saying – one day this will be my forever home, but for now I use it, call on it for its comfort, support, and endless inspiration.

Back in Los Angeles, one cannot deny at times it feels like we live in a bubble. Spoiled with constant sun, cloudless skies, and warm weather, but causing days to bleed into the next without any distinction to the senses. Calendars become essential for tracking milestones and events. In Maine, even the most ominous of weather masks her coastline in unparalleled beauty and days and nights one holds with them forever.

Oh and the light… My favorite are the days that begin with a thick and lingering fog that diffuses the light and camouflages the scenery, covering everything in a clinging and glistening dew and amplifying the smell of the the tides and sea-lining rosa rugosa. It’s these days that I feel deserve a reluctant start, loitering in pajamas, and treating breakfast like a three hour French lunch break; every detail exquisitely thought out, yet undeniably uncomplicated and provincial in the more sincerest of compliments.

These mornings beg for everything to be made from scratch. Coffee made pour over style from our local island-roasted coffee at 44 North, our very own Royal Ghee (purchase here) paired with fresh-picked Maine wild blueberries, and the most amazing greek-style, unpasteurized goat yogurt, made up the road at Yellow Birch Farms. No muffin, scone, or pancake could complete this Maine meal. Only popovers could anchor this meal as the quintessential Maine morning for me. These buttery, light and airy domes of goodness have been my center of comfort since I was small, yet, since my major dietary shifts, have been off limits to me. Now that butter can be replaced with ghee, and I’ve added small amounts of high quality goat dairy back into my diet, the only ingredient left to swap was the flour. Et voila! Enter, the gluten-free, as well as paleo-friendly popover. (Recipe below. Maine morning, highly recommended).

Gluten-Free Maine Popovers

Makes 8 large popovers

ingredients:

4 organic eggs, room temperature
1 cup organic and grass-fed cow or goat milk or cream, room temperature. If using coconut flour, increase to 1 ½ cups*
½ cup fine coconut, almond flour, or other all-purpose gluten-free flour (a classic grain-derived gluten-free flour will create more of the classic taste associated with a popover.)
4 teaspoons ghee, grass-fed butter, or coconut oil (for popover baking tin)
1 teaspoon sea salt

*if substituting with a dairy-free alternative, homemade almond or other nut milk is recommended where you can control the creaminess of the milk. A thicker whole milk or cream texture is prefered, usually a 1:1 to 1:2 ratio of nut to water.

instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Separate the ghee or chosen “butter” into about ½ teaspoon servings and add to the bottom of each popover muffin tin. Melt the ghee in the oven until it begins to sizzle. The key to a successful popover is the preheated pan paired with room temperature ingredients.

Whisk together the milk or cream and eggs until frothy, for about 2-3 minutes. Add in salt and flour and beat again until combined, maintaining air bubbles. Coconut flour soaks up more liquid than other flours, so be sure to use ½ cup more milk when baking with coconut flour.

Immediately pour batter ½- ¾ full into hot, ghee-filled tins (depending on the size of your tins.)

Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes until browned. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 10-15 minutes. It is important not to disturb or open the oven door while they are cooking.

Once removed from the oven, remove popovers from their tin and allow to cool on a wire rack. Serve immediately with jam, fruit, royal ghee, yogurt, or anything that makes your morning especially special.