rosemary & sea salt hollows

I wasn’t sure what to call these.

They're a cross between a popover and a German pancake:

Pull-apart puffs with crispy edges and a deep hollow in the middle just waiting to get filled.

The rosemary hollows are light in texture and ingredients --  there's only a few.

Plus, I trimmed back on the butter and the egg yolks, and went with skim milk.

Knowing I made them a little healthier led me to eat several. I kind of made a meal out of them.

I gave them a really hot shot of heat right at the beginning, which filled the light dough with air, giving the hollowed-out puffs those golden-brown, crispy edges and that slightly soft center.

Rosemary and sea salt are two of my favorite combinations when it comes to bread stuff, and they add a nice hint of flavor here.

These are pretty easy going "rolls" and would probably pair well with most entrees, including those with sauces, gravies...anything you may want to smother them in.

Those yummy parmesan-crusted pork chops came to mind. And the chicken adobe.

But the hollows work just fine as the main course, too.

Rosemary & Sea Salt Hollows

adapted from Bobby Flay's Mini German Pancakes

• 1 cup skim milk (I used 0 percent)

• 4 eggs + 2 egg whites

• 2 generous teaspoons granulated sugar

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more for sprinkling

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease or spray your regular cupcake pan or mini-cupcake pan with canola spray. This recipe makes about 14 regular muffin-sized puffs or about 24-28 mini muffin-sized puffs. (I made 12 regular-sized puffs and 6 minis.)

In large bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, egg whites and sugar until smooth, about 1 minute.

Whisk in the butter, rosemary and salt until combined.

Sift the flour over the egg mixture. Whisk until smooth, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

For regular-sized puffs, pour 1/4 cup of the mixture into each cup (see note). For minis, pour about 1/8 cup into each cup. Both sizes of muffin cups should be about 2/3 full.

Sprinkle the cup-fulls of batter very lightly with fine sea salt.

Bake for 10 minutes. Decrease oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake until puffs have browned nicely and the centers have deflated and set, about another 4 to 5 minutes for the minis, or 5 to 7 minutes for the regular-sized puffs.

Sprinkle the puffs very lightly with fine sea salt again.

Carefully remove the hollows from the pans and serve immediately.

Note: The two regular-sized hollows at the very center of the pan didn't puff up as much as the rest of the batch. I suggest filling the two center cups of the pan halfway with water (so everything bakes evenly) instead of batter and using an extra cupcake pan to bake off the remaining batter. That's what I'll do next time.