One rainy morning during the summer holidays Buddy came up with an excellent if ambitious idea for an indoor activity. I remember being very surprised at his plan; he was determined that we make our very own home-baked crumpets - from scratch.
Although we eat plenty of the shop-bought variety as pictured above (Buddy has arranged his into breakfast umbrellas here), I had never before thought of actually baking these bubbly wonders. I was delighted when Delia came up trumps with a simple recipe in her Complete Illustrated Cookery Course. Plus it required a very short list of ingredients - perfect.
We had to tweak the recipe slightly, due to our shortage of dried yeast and lack of egg rings - egg rings!? What the heck? as Daisy would say. But we still managed to successfully produce a batch of 10 delicious crumpets with our slightly reduced quantities of ingredients and improvised egg rings - metal cookie cutters. We have since tried making novelty crumpets using our dog and rabbit shaped cutters, but returned to simple circles after severing one too many peripheral crumpet-parts.
Ingredients
250 ml milk
50 ml water
1 teaspoon caster sugar
7g (1 sachet) dried yeast
200g plain flour
level teaspoon salt
butter, for greasing
Equipment
a non-stick frying pan
metal cookie cutters
Served warm with butter, cream cheese, jam or marmite, these home-made classics get the double thumbs-up from Bud - high praise indeed. They don't stay fresh as long as shop-bought crumpets, a maximum of three days in an air tight container, but they freeze pretty well. Ask a couple of friends over for a teatime treat and you may not need to store or freeze - it's quite possible to polish off the whole batch in one delicious sitting. Enjoy.
Yum! Those look delicious! Never made crumpets before!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! I had never thought to make my own crumpets! Those look amazing. Thanks for linking up to the Around the World in 12 Dishes linky party...hope to see you again next month. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteOh wow - I've never made crumpets - I always thought they were way too complicated but you've made them look so easy. I've got to try them.
ReplyDeleteReally easy, yes. I didn't put the HOW on this blog post, but it's just a matter of leaving the batter until it's frothy; then you're ready to go! Hope you do try them...
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