Crumpets
This traditional British teatime treat is midway between English muffin and pancake. Like an English muffin, it's full of holes, perfect for collecting rivulets of melted butter. But it's also moister and thinner ? more like a small pancake.
These are best enjoyed toasted, and spread with butter, jam, and/or clotted cream. Since their holes reach to the outside crust, there's no need to split them before toasting.
You can make crumpets without English muffin rings (or cleaned tuna cans), but they'll be perfectly round and ever so much nicer looking if you use rings.
Read our blog about these crumpets, with additional photos, at Bakers' Banter.
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- 1 cup lukewarm milk
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Directions
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1) Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and beat vigorously for 2 minutes. A stand or hand mixer, set on high speed, work well here. |
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2) Cover the bowl, and let the batter rest at room temperature for 1 hour. It will expand and become bubbly. Towards the end of the rest, preheat a griddle to medium-low, about 325°F. If you don't have an electric griddle, preheat a frying pan; it shouldn't be as hot as the temperature you use to cook pancakes. |
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3) Lightly grease the griddle or frying pan, and place well-greased 3 3/4" English muffin rings in the pan, as many as will fit. (If you don't have English muffin rings, use well-cleaned tuna cans, from which you've removed the top and bottom.) Pour sticky batter by the scant 1/4-cupful into each ring; a muffin scoop works well here. |
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4) After about 4 minutes, use a pair of tongs to slip the rings off. Cook the crumpets for a total of about 10 minutes on the first side, until their tops are riddled with small bubbles/holes. They should be starting to look a bit dry around the edges. Their bottoms will be a mottled, light-golden brown. Note: They probably won't be as full of holes as store-bought crumpets; that's OK. |
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5) Turn the crumpets over, and cook for an additional 5 minutes, to finish cooking the insides and to brown the tops gently. This isn't traditional; "real" crumpets are white on top, but the crumpet police won't chastise you for adding a little color to the tops. |
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6) Remove the crumpets from the pan, and repeat with the remaining batter, until all the crumpets are cooked. Serve warm. Or cool completely, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature. To enjoy, warm in the toaster. Serve with butter, or butter and jam. |
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Yield: about twenty 3 3/4" crumpets. |
Recipe summary
- Hands-on time:
- 15 mins. to 25 mins.
- Baking time:
- 15 mins. to 20 mins.
- Total time:
- 1 hrs 45 mins. to 2 hrs 45 mins.
- Yield:
- 20 crumpets
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- Recipe comments (8) »
Reviews
01/31/2010
Fantastic! I've tried several recipes, and this one is the best!
01/27/2010
I made these recently for a coffee hour at my office. They were easy to make and, as promised, turned out beautifully. They got rave reviews from everyone and were scoffed up immediately! I served them with butter and Lyle's Golden Syrup (aka treacle) from England, as I remember my English grandmother serving crumpets when I was a girl. I've invested in muffin rings and plan to make them regularly in the future. A+++++++
01/20/2010
Easy to make, very simple, and absolutely delicious. When you try it you will never, ever want to go back to storebought crumpets because they are inferior to these yummies.
10/04/2009
These were great fun to make and were delicious. I didn''t have crumpet rings so I used some dinosaur shaped pancake molds that worked fine (I just lost a few tails when I tried to take the molds off). I found it was important to pay close attention to how much batter I used in each mold-- too much batter and they didn't cook as well and I didn't get as many holes on top. Thanks for another winning recipe!
09/25/2009
The best, & easiest crumpet recipe I've tried so far. But I had to scale back on times (10 to 8 min, & 5 to 4min) and also cooking in skillet on my electric stove top, I needed a 3 setting. Which is much lower than I set for pancakes! Also, the crumpets lack the "Shop bought" special favor! All recipes do! I wish I knew how to get that!
09/21/2009
These were excellent. However, we did have some problems with the crumpets sticking to the English muffin rings. Be sure to generously oil the rings in between muffins as well as at the start.
Great tips for using the English Muffin Rings. You can also access the Baker's Hotline for baking dilemmas at 802-649-3717. Irene @ KAF
09/20/2009
Can whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour be used for the crumpets? If so what would the proportions be? Thank you. Jcg
09/18/2009
I have been making the version of this recipe that appeared in the Baking Book for over 8 years now with never a failure. I do refrigerate the leftovers because it is such a moist bread product but they toast up beautifully and are sturdy enough to hold a generous amount of jam! We have even used them in a pinch with chicken salad on top!!
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