I’ve had a long love affair with crumpets. To me, they’re the perfect snack – just enough to curb your hunger without spoiling your next main meal, and you can eat them with both sweet and savoury toppings (honey + butter and grilled cheese are my two recommendations).
Adam and I have consumed quite a few packets of supermarket crumpets over the last month, so when a recipe for homemade crumpets popped up in one of my social media feeds the other day, I took it as a sign that we needed to try making them ourselves…
As you’ll soon learn, this recipe from Australia’s Country Style magazine didn’t quite go to plan. Adam, the ever confident cook, made a few tweaks, but to be honest our crumpets were a little underwhelming! That’s kitchen experimentation though isn’t it? Sometimes you find a winning recipe, other times not so much. I’ll note what we did and what changes we’ll make next time, and perhaps you’ll have more success.
What you’ll need
- two teaspoons of dried yeast
- two teaspoons of caster sugar
- half a cup of warm milk
- half a cup of warm water
- one and half cups of plain flour (we ended up using double the flour, so three cups)
- half a teaspoon of salt
- half of cup of extra water
- half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- butter and honey to serve
How to do it
- In a medium bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, warm milk and warm water. Set aside in a warm draught-free place for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is foaming.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk mixture. Stir well until combined and then cover (we used a beeswax wrap, but cling film also works). Set aside for an hour or until the mixture doubles in size.
- In a jug, combine the extra water and bicarbonate of soda. Whisk the flour mixture until it deflates to its original size. Gradually add in the water mixture, whisking well between each addition and until combined and smooth. Cover again, and set aside for 30 minutes to rest.
- Brush a large non-stick frying pan with oil, and do the same with four to five egg rings. Over low-medium heat, pour about two tablespoons of mixture into the egg rings in the frying pan. Cook for about five minutes, or until bubbles rise to the surface of the crumpet and the bottom is golden and the top set. Remove egg ring and flip onto bubbly side and cook for a further one minute or so. Transfer onto a cooling rack and cook remaining crumpets in batches until the batter is all gone.
- To serve, toast lightly and serve with butter and honey.
Cooking notes
This recipe calls for a very runny batter. The first lot of crumpets we cooked turned out very flat (see picture below) and hardly had any rise. We ended up adding about double the amount of flour the recipe called for… but even then, the crumpets still felt a little deflated. Consulting a few other recipes after we’d make our crumpets, it seems a 1:1 ratio for flour and milk/water is the way to go. Adam thinks using bread flour instead of plain, might also help with the rise.
Although our crumpets were a little lacklustre, they still toasted up nicely and we enjoyed ours with a cuppa for morning tea. We’ll keep tinkering with the recipe and if we find a winning combination, I’ll be sure to post an epilogue ;). In the meantime, if you’ve got a good crumpet recipe, I’d love to know!
Have a wonderful week.
M. x
Wattle and Ash 
Hi Melinda,
I too love a toasted crumpet but is one of the few things I have never tried to make (along with English muffins). I’m sure whether it is a sense of a foreboding disaster or I can put it off to whip up scones, pancakes or waffles. Having looked at your recipe, I think the water component would tend to lead to the lack of richness in the taste as you mentioned. The method below is more straightforward and uses only milk, and I would tend to think it would have a better flavour along with fewer ingredients. This recipe is by Jamie Oliver and is one of my fav cooks as he tends to have quick, simple and tasty recipes.
I think I will finally take the plunge and see how this turns out, and I hope you don’t mind the comments and the addition of the recipe.
Ingredients
• 400 ml milk
• 1 tablespoon dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 300 g strong white flour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• vegetable oil, for greasing
Method
1. Gently warm the milk. In a bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm milk and 100ml of tepid water. Leave in a warm place for 15 minutes, or until frothy.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture.
3. Whisk from the centre outwards until the consistency of double cream – this will take a few minutes. Add a splash more water, if needed.
4. Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside for 45 minutes or until little bubbles form on the surface.
5. Grease four 10cm egg rings with vegetable oil. Wipe a little oil around a large frying pan or iron skillet and place over medium-high heat.
6. Arrange the rings in the frying pan and, once hot, spoon 4 tablespoons of the batter into each ring. Cook for 5 minutes, or until little bubbles appear on the surface.
7. Once the bubbles have burst, leaving little holes, use tongs to carefully lift off the rings and flip over the crumpets, then cook for 1 minute on the other side. Re-grease and reheat the rings and pan before cooking the next batch.
Happy cooking
Larry
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Thanks so much Larry! I generally have a pretty good success rate with Jaime Oliver recipes, so will definitely have to give this one a go. My mum sent me an Australian Women’s Weekly crumpet recipe too, so I suspect Adam and I will be sampling crumpets for weeks to come! Lucky it’s the perfect weather for them. 😊
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I’ve never had crumpets. Feel free to send me some when you finally perfect it.
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You’re missing out Goldie- Give them a go!
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