A couple of weeks ago I was reading “Bread” A River Cottage Cookbook
and today it was chilly and foggy…
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?
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.
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
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.
When I looked it had expanded beautifully and looked smooth and frothy
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.
Whisk it…
Put some sunflower oil on some kitchen paper and rub it round the inside of the metal rings
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
It was fine, at first…..
The book said leave it for 5 minutes or so till the top is just set then flip it over….
Ooops!
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
It was good.. it was working
You can start doing them all now.
Soon be time for tea…..
Spread those hot crumpets with butter….
And…….. take a bite! They were good enough for a Bear, apparently. You can see the size of the bite he took…….
Time for tea, indeed
A perfect afternoon tea in autumn.
Another cuppa, anyone?