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