A nice bit of crumpet…..

A couple of weeks ago I was reading “Bread” A River Cottage Cookbook

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 064

and today it was chilly and foggy…

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 063

and I remembered that I said I would make crumpets.  What could be better on a cold, grey afternoon than hot buttered crumpets, dripping with honey?

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 067

To make crumpets you will need a heavy based frying pan or griddle and some metal rings to cook them in. If you don’t have rings then just pour the mix on and make pikelets, instead.

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 069

So, into a bowl with 450g of plain white flour,

350ml of warm milk and 350 ml of warm water

5 g of powdered yeast

10 g of salt

1 tsp baking powder

Some sunflower or vegetable oil

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 072

And whisk it all together. It makes a thin batter, like single cream. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave it to rest and do its yeasty business for at least an hour until it is lovely and bubbly. I left it for three hours as we were going off into town.

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 073

When I looked it had expanded beautifully and looked smooth and frothy

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 075

Now you need to warm your griddle, or heavy pan on a medium to high heat and while that is warming, whisk in the baking powder an salt.

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 076

Whisk it…

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 077

Put some sunflower oil on some kitchen paper and rub it round the inside of the metal rings

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 079

Try making a test crumpet first, the book says. Good thing too… Ladle in some batter mix to just below the rim of the ring

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 080

It was fine, at first…..

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 085

The book said leave it for 5 minutes or so till the top is just set then flip it over….

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 087

Ooops!

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 089

Just goes to show that a test run is the way to go. That griddle was obviously far too hot. I turned it down and let it cool just slightly (that was cast iron, just turning down the heat wasn’t going to radically change things in seconds) and then tried again

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 091

It was good.. it was working

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 092

You can start doing them all now.

Soon be time for tea…..

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 093

Spread those hot crumpets with butter….

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 097

And…….. take a bite! They were good enough for a Bear, apparently.  You can see the size of the bite he took…….

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 098

Time for tea, indeed

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 099

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 101

A perfect afternoon tea in autumn.

Another cuppa, anyone?