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But what is he doing to us now? You don’t know what crumpets are? They are small “breads” with holes that come from the United Kingdom. They may look strange to the uninitiated, but I recommend that you butter them generously for breakfast. The butter will then fill all the little holes…. A real treat! As usual, I tested a number of crumpet recipes to finally arrive at this one, which seems almost perfect. The difficulty is to get the holes and it is even a subject of controversy in England to know how to get them… The solution is here!
Recipes for crumpets:
-460g of flour
-3/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
-15g of fresh yeast or 1 sachet of dry baker’s yeast
-1/2 teaspoon sugar
– 510ml of warm water
-10g of coarse salt
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-140ml of milk
Start by pouring the yeast and sugar into a large bowl.
Add 200ml (of the 510ml) of warm water. Mix well and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes. The liquid will start to foam nicely.
In the meantime, mix the flour and the cream of tartar (I remind you that it is a white powder, see recipe for macaroons!).
After 10 minutes, add the rest of the water (310ml) and the flour all at once. Mix briskly with a whisk for at least two minutes.
Let the dough rise for one hour, protecting it with a clean cloth.
After this hour of rest, add the coarse salt. Mix vigorously for another 1 minute with the whisk.
Let the dough rest again for 15 to 20 minutes. That gives us time to prepare the pan and the crumpet rings.
Bernard’s advice: crumpet rings can be found on ebay.uk.co and search for “crumpets rings”. These are the same circles used to make the fried eggs. They are non-stick. You can also use foam circles, but you’ll have to grease them with the grease spray I mentioned in the caneles!
Add the warmed milk and baking soda.
I used my bilig as for the pancakes!
But don’t panic! They can be made in a frying pan over moderate heat… You have to grease the circles with the grease spray even if they are non-stick!
It gave me an excuse to cook outside in the sun! I put the bilig on 230°C. Place the crumpet rings on the bilig or the pan. When the bilig or the pan is at temperature, pour a ladleful of batter into the circles. The dough should be about 1 cm thick, or a little more!
The dough will start to bubble very quickly. To get holes in the crumpets, I’ve found that when the surface is almost cooked, you have to pop the bubbles by lifting the crumpet and jerking it upright. The bubbles then burst and make way for holes! You can peel off the skin as soon as the edges are cooked. That leaves room for more crumpets. Grease the circles well each time.
So you can cook several crumpets at the same time. On a bilig there is plenty of room, so I was able to cook at least 10 at the same time! But on a pan, it will probably be limited to 5…
Leave to cook until the surface is done. They can be turned over for a few seconds to finish cooking, but usually the crumpets are only cooked on one side. But even some English people do it sometimes on both sides… I prefer one side only and the other side white and full of holes to fill with salted butter!
To be eaten with butter that will melt on it, and then a good layer of jam!
