What is BLT Steak and why are its popovers famous?

BLT Steak stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel — the upscale steakhouse group chef Laurent Tourondel launched in 2004 with the NYC flagship at 106 East 57th Street. Tourondel's classical French training informed the bread service: instead of a standard bread basket, every table receives freshly baked Gruyère popovers from the oven, served hot in the pan. The New York Times food critic Frank Bruni mentioned the popovers when he reviewed the restaurant in 2005 — they were that notable. Williams-Sonoma later published the recipe under BLT Steak's name, which made the restaurant's precise ratios publicly available. Today BLT Steak operates in Washington D.C., San Juan, and other cities, and the popovers appear at every location.

Why does preheating the pan matter so much?

Preheating the pan is the single most important technique step and the difference between a tall, hollow balloon and a short, dense disk. When batter hits a cold pan, the crust sets slowly and the interior steam builds against a gradually firming shell — the result is limited expansion and minimal height. When batter hits a screaming-hot greased pan that has been in a 400°F oven for 10 to 20 minutes, the bottom and sides of the batter immediately form a thin, set shell within seconds, trapping the liquid interior under pressure. That pressure — steam wanting to expand — pushes the popover dramatically upward. The 'pop' in popover comes entirely from this fast early-set mechanism. No other step compensates for a cold pan.

Can I use a muffin tin instead of a popover pan?

Yes, with a trade-off. Dedicated popover pans have deeper, narrower cups than standard muffin tins — the geometry forces the batter up rather than outward and produces the tall, balloon-shaped popovers the restaurant is known for. The cups are also made of heavy dark metal that retains heat better than aluminum muffin tins. If you use a standard 12-cup muffin tin, you'll get shorter, wider, more mushroom-shaped popovers that taste identical but don't have the dramatic height. Cast-iron muffin pans are a good middle ground — the heat retention is excellent and the cups are deeper than standard muffin tins. A dedicated popover pan is worth buying if you'll make these more than once; it pays for itself in three batches.

Why must I use whole milk? Will 2% or oat milk work?

Whole milk is specified in the restaurant's recipe for both flavor and rise. The fat in whole milk (3.25%) keeps the batter tender and the interior custardy; lower-fat milks produce a tighter, slightly drier interior. The official BLT Steak recipe calls for whole milk only. In a pinch, 2% works and produces about 90% of the result — the interior will be slightly less rich and the rise modestly lower, but it is not a dramatic failure. Plant-based milks are a poor substitute: oat milk, almond milk, and others have different protein and fat structures that do not behave the same way in a steam-leavened batter. The popovers will be flat or will not hold their structure.

Can I make the batter ahead of time for a dinner party?

Mix the batter up to 1 hour ahead and rest it at room temperature — do not refrigerate. Cold batter hitting a hot pan causes uneven expansion because the outer layer begins to set before the interior has warmed enough to build steam pressure. The 10-minute rest after mixing relaxes gluten and produces a more even rise; beyond 15 to 20 minutes at room temperature, the batter does not improve further. For a dinner party, mix the batter while guests arrive, let it rest at room temperature, preheat the pan, and bake them hot during the appetizer course. If you absolutely need to prep earlier, cold batter can work but let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before baking.

My popovers collapsed right after I took them out. What went wrong?

Three likely causes: opening the oven too early, underbaking, or not piercing after baking. Opening the door in the first 15 minutes drops the oven temperature while the structure is still liquid — the expansion collapses and the batter settles into a dense disk. Don't open the oven until the 15-minute rotation point. Underbaking is the second cause: the shell looks golden but the interior hasn't fully set around its walls. Pull a popover out of the oven before the full 40 to 45 minutes and the steam trapped inside quickly softens the under-set shell. The third cause is unvented steam: immediately after baking, pierce each popover with a skewer — this releases the steam in a controlled way and keeps the shell from softening under its own trapped moisture.

What Gruyère should I buy? Can I substitute Swiss cheese?

Buy a wedge of aged Gruyère from the refrigerated cheese section and grate it fresh on the large holes of a box grater. Pre-shredded Gruyère contains cellulose anti-caking agents that slightly impede melting and browning — freshly grated melts cleanly and caramelizes into a better cheese crown. Any major brand of Gruyère (Emmi, Kaltbach, Président, Le Gruyère AOP) works well. Cave-aged Gruyère has a deeper, nuttier flavor and is worth the upgrade for a dinner party. Comté is an excellent substitute — it's made in the same Alpine tradition and has a nuanced, slightly sweeter flavor profile. Baby Swiss or domestic Swiss works in a pinch but produces a milder, less complex crown. Do not use mozzarella or Cheddar — the moisture content and fat structure are wrong for this application.

What does the popover course cost at BLT Steak versus at home?

At BLT Steak, the popovers are served as a complimentary table bread — included in a meal that runs $100 to $150 per person. The home batch of 12 large popovers costs approximately $8 to $12: a dozen eggs ($4), 3 cups whole milk ($1.50), 3 cups all-purpose flour ($0.80), and 6 ounces of Gruyère ($5 to $7). The cheese is the dominant cost. If you are buying Gruyère for another dish — French onion soup, a quiche, raclette — the popovers add almost nothing to the grocery bill.

BLT Steak Gruyère Popovers

Name: BLT Steak Gruyère Popovers
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 12 popovers
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 cups whole milk (do not substitute 2% or plant-based); 3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted; 1 Tbsp kosher salt; 6 large eggs, room temperature (leave on counter 30 min before starting); 6 oz (170g) Gruyère, finely grated (about 1½ cups loosely packed); Nonstick cooking spray

Prep time: 15 min Cook time: 45 min Servings: 12 popovers

BLT Steak, Laurent Tourondel’s upscale steakhouse on East 57th Street in Manhattan, built its name on USDA prime dry-aged beef. But the thing diners describe first — the thing that sets up the meal before a steak is ordered — is the bread service.

Every table gets freshly baked Gruyère popovers, served from the pan, still hot enough to burn if you reach for them too quickly. The exterior is crisp and audibly crackles when pressed. The interior is hollow and custardy, almost like a baked custard suspended inside a thin egg pastry shell. The Gruyère on top has caramelized into a browned, slightly crunchy crown. It arrived tableside in 2004 and became one of those New York steakhouse rituals people tell others about: there’s this place on 57th, and they bring these enormous popovers…

The recipe was published through Williams-Sonoma under BLT Steak’s name — five ingredients and a technique that determines everything. Like the warm bread service at other great steakhouses — LongHorn’s honey wheat loaf or the breadbasket garlic bread at Carbone — it’s the first thing on the table and the thing people remember.

What Makes These Popovers Different From the Standard Version

Popovers have been part of American cooking since the 1870s — a thin egg-and-milk batter poured into a hot greased pan, leavened entirely by the steam that builds as the liquid expands in the oven’s heat. They are hollow, eggy, and require no chemical leavening. They are also finicky: technique errors that would be minor in a yeast bread or a cake are fatal here.

BLT Steak does two things that set the restaurant version apart from generic popovers:

Gruyère on top, not stirred in. The cheese sits on top of the liquid batter before it enters the oven. As the batter rises, the cheese travels with it — pressed against the oven’s direct heat at the top of the rise. The result is a caramelized, slightly crunchy cheese crust on the exterior crown, not melted cheese inside the bread. This is the visible signature that makes BLT Steak’s version recognizable: a dark, nutty, crackling cap over a pale puffed body.

A wet batter ratio. The 1:1 ratio of whole milk to flour by volume is wetter than many popover recipes, which lean toward a slightly thicker batter. The wetter ratio keeps the interior custardy and almost quiche-like rather than bready — closer to a baked egg custard set inside a thin crisp shell than to a hollow dinner roll.

The One Technique That Determines Everything

Preheat the popover pan. Not the oven — the pan. The pan should be in the oven when it preheats, heating at 400°F for at least 10 to 20 minutes before you pour in the batter.

When batter hits a cold pan, the batter heats slowly from the outside in. By the time the interior starts generating significant steam, the outer batter has already set into a flexible crust that expands gradually under modest pressure. You get a modest rise and a serviceable popover.

When batter hits a screaming-hot greased pan, the thin layer touching the cup walls sets within seconds, forming a rigid thin shell while the interior is still completely liquid. The steam that builds as the liquid interior heats is trapped inside a quickly-firmed shell and has nowhere to go but up. The popover pops — expanding dramatically upward in the first 15 minutes, rising above the rim of the cup and developing the characteristic mushroom-cloud silhouette of a properly made restaurant popover.

Heat the pan. It is the one step that cannot be compensated for by anything else.

Why You Cannot Open the Oven for the First 15 Minutes

In the first 15 minutes of baking, the popover is expanding. The interior is still largely liquid; the shell is forming but not yet set into a rigid structure. A drop in oven temperature during this phase — from opening the door to check on them — is enough to interrupt the expansion. The partial structure collapses, the liquid interior spreads out rather than up, and the result is a flat, dense disk rather than a towering balloon.

The rotation at the 15-minute mark is the one time you open the oven during baking. Rotate fast, close fast. After rotation, do not open the door until the full time has passed.

Serving and the Short Window

Popovers fall. This is not a flaw — it is what they do. Within 5 to 10 minutes of leaving the oven, the steam that was holding the structure expands through the shell, the interior cools and contracts, and the balloon deflates. BLT Steak serves them immediately because there is no other option.

At home: pierce each popover with a skewer right out of the oven to vent the steam in a controlled way (this buys a few extra minutes before deflation). Have plates set, guests seated, and the table ready before the popovers come out of the oven. Make them, set them down, eat them.

Tips

Room-temperature eggs are not optional. Cold eggs set too quickly when they hit the hot batter layer, compressing the expansion window. Leave eggs on the counter for at least 30 minutes before making the batter.
Move fast when filling the cups. The pan loses heat every second it is out of the oven. Fill all cups and top with cheese in under 60 seconds, then get the pan back in immediately.
The batter is thin — that is correct. It should look almost too loose, thinner than pancake batter. This is how popovers work.
Muffin tin substitution. Standard muffin tins produce shorter, wider popovers. They taste the same but lack the height. Cast-iron muffin pans are a better alternative if you don’t have a dedicated popover pan — the heat retention is much better than aluminum.
Leftovers rarely exist, but cold popovers can be reheated at 350°F for 5 to 7 minutes to restore some crispness. They will not be what they were fresh from the oven.

Build the Steakhouse Dinner at Home

The popovers are a bread course, built to lead into steak. If you’re recreating the full BLT Steak experience, the obvious partners are a well-seared steak and a classic creamed side:

Peter Luger steak sauce — the anchovy-and-tamarind sauce from Brooklyn’s 1887 steakhouse; the one bottle worth cloning for any steak night.
Ruth’s Chris filet mignon — USDA Prime finished with butter on a 500°F plate, the sizzling-plate technique explained for a home oven and skillet.
Morton’s creamed spinach — the three-cheese creamed spinach that’s the default steakhouse side, and the one these popovers are made to mop up.

BLT Steak is a trademark of its owner, used here only to describe the dish this recipe recreates. This is an independent copycat written in our own words — Copycat Spices is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by BLT Steak.

BLT Steak Gruyère Popovers

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