A tasty bit of crumpet…

Crumpets are probably the best food ever invented, except maybe Yorkshire puddings and roast pork and cheesecake and some other things…

They’re pretty good though especially with tuna mayonnaise, which sounds wrong but trust me, try it!

We eat a lot of crumpets in our house so I decided to have a go at making some from scratch, here’s how they turned out:

…and here’s the recipe, courtesy of the Hairy Bikers and the BBC:

Ingredients

• 350ml/12¼fl oz whole milk

• 225g/8oz strong white flour

• 125g/4½oz plain flour

• 1 x 7g/¼oz sachet fast-action dried yeast

• ½ tsp fine sea salt

• 1 tsp caster sugar

• 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 150ml/5¼fl oz warm water

• butter, for greasing, plus extra to serve

Method

1. Warm the milk in a saucepan very gently until tepid.

2. Sift the flours into a large bowl and stir in the yeast, salt and sugar until well-combined.

3. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and stir in the warm milk. Beat well with a wooden spoon for 3-4 minutes, or until the batter is thick and elastic.

4. Cover the bowl with cling film and set aside in a warm place for an hour, or until the batter has doubled in size.

5. When the batter has risen, mix the bicarbonate of soda with the warm water, and beat the mixture into the batter for a couple of minutes. Set aside to rest in a warm place for a further 30 minutes. By this time the mixture should have risen and be covered with tiny bubbles.

6. Heat a flat griddle pan or large heavy-based non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat.

7. Generously butter or oil the insides of four crumpet rings or 9cm/3½in chefs' rings and place them onto the griddle or into the frying pan. Warm the rings for a minute or two. (I used whatever I had lying about – egg rings and pastry cutters)

8. Using a dessertspoon, drop three large spoonfuls of the crumpet batter into each ring. It should come around 1.5cm/½in up the sides of each ring, but no more. Cook for 9-12 minutes, or until lots of tiny bubbles have risen to the surface and burst and the tops look dry and set.

9. Carefully lift off the rings (I had to use a knife because the butter did nothing!) Use an oven glove and take care as the crumpet rings will be hot.

They were pretty good, and with my mish-mash of egg rings and pastry cutters they all came out different thicknesses and sizes. Toasted and lathered in butter then loaded with tuna they were lovely and tasted like the real thing (but were a load of faff to make!)

This mix made about 20 or so, so I have loads left for tomorrow when I suspect they’ll be tastier like most things are the day after!

If you make your own bread you should have a go.

Beccy

Jubilee!

We didn’t make a traditional Jubilee cake because frankly this was a last minute cake baked this morning to take to my gran’s for lunch and we didn’t have any strawberries.

It’s Nigella’s chocolate Guinness cake recipe and although it sounds weird it doesn’t taste of Guinness! It is dark and chocolatey goodness.

So, with the cake and the bunting it feels a bit jubilee-ee but we popped to the car boot sale at the racecourse yesterday morning and I found a few more things to bump up the jubilee feeling.

Lawks, I love the queen. The two trios cost £2 each and I can’t remember how much the single cup and saucer cost but it can’t have been much more. With these, it’s becoming a bit of a collection!

I’ll show you all the other things we got a the car boot tomorrow.

Happy jubilee! (or something)

Beccy

Christmas cake!

I’ve never made a Christmas cake in my life, but I thought I’d give it a go…

What do you think? The cake frill is a vintage one I found in a charity shop. It’s almost a shame to use it because it’s so pretty. The snowmen are old wooden tree ornaments. I’ll let you know how it tastes!

It’s not as good as my gran’s cake though. She always uses decorations she bought in the 50’s – a church (she even flattens a path in the icing), a fir tree and a plastic ‘Merry Christmas’. If I didn’t know better I’d say it’s always the same cake every year! She doesn’t make hers anymore, it’s a Marks’ special, but she always adds her own royal icing and decorations.

If I remember before she cuts it, I’ll get a photo this year.

Beccy