I never had a crumpet growing up.  You’d always hear the phrase “tea and crumpets” when people would make comments related to England, but before moving to London I couldn’t even tell you what a crumpet was. But then I ate one. And then I ate another. And then I decided that Americans are seriously missing out on crumpets.

A crumpet is sort of a cross between a pancake and an English muffin. They’re fluffy, flat disks that you cook on the griddle like a pancake, but they’re thick like an English muffin and have a sort of slightly chewy texture to them in the middle due to all of the tubes of air running through them.  I love to eat them with a bit of butter and honey, but others like them with jam, or Ben loves his smothered in peanut butter.

They’re pretty simple in terms of ingredients, but they definitely take some practice to get them just right. Turn them too soon, and they won’t be tall and fluffy. Turn them too late and they’re burnt on the bottom. So these need to be watched carefully!

Ingredients

• 175 grams bread flour
• 175 grams flour
• 14 grams (2 packets) of yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 350 ml warm milk
• 150-200 ml warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• vegetable oil for cooking

Directions

1. Mix together the two types of flour and your yeast in a medium-sized bowl. Dissolve the sugar in the warm milk, then pour over the flour and mix with a wooden spoon for 3-4 minutes until you get a smooth batter. Make sure you mix for the full amount of time to get air bubbles into the mixture. This will produce all of the holes of a quintessential crumpet.

2. Cover your mixture and leave it to rest for 20 minutes to an hour. The batter will rise then fall once it’s ready.

3. Mix your baking soda and salt with the warm water, then beat the mixture into your batter.  Add about 3/4 of the water and keep adding it until you get a thick, but still runny consistency. Cover and rest for another 20 minutes.

4. Heat your griddle over a medium heat, then lightly grease the inside of four crumpet rings using the vegetable oil. Also lightly grease your hot griddle with the oil and place the prepped crumpet rings onto the griddle.

5. Pour 4 Tablespoons of your batter into each ring. After a couple minutes, bubbles will start to appear on the top (like you see with American pancakes) and the surface will set up. Once this happens, flip your crumpet and the ring over and cook on the other side for another 3 minutes until golden.

This one’s not quite ready to be flipped…

….ready to flip!!

6. Serve the crumpets while they are still warm, or let them cool and stick them in the toaster before serving.