Crumpets for Tea

I love crumpets but strangely enough have never made them at all.  I have all the equipment just never got round to making any.  I have therefore been inspired to have a go.  What has spurred me on is the new Hairy Bikers Family Cookbook "Mum's know Best" ISBN 978-1-4072-2458-9.  I managed to get mine from the Book People - they visit at work  - for a fiver.  It might be worth paying a visit to their website to see whether it is still on offer - it really is a lovely book and has some really good recipes in - really good home cooking with the occasional twist.  

These are on the menu for Saturday night's tea.


Apparently it makes 12


Ingredients


350ml whole milk
225g strong white bread flour
125g plain flour
7g sachet of fast action dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon of caster sugar
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
150ml warm water
softened butter for greasing the rings


Method

Put the milk in a saucepan and warm it very gently until tepid.  Sift the flours into a large bowl and stir in the yeast salt and sugar.

Make a well in the centre and stir in the warm milk.  Beat well with a wooden spoon for 3 to 4 minutes until the batter is thick and elastic.  Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the warm water.  Beat this into the batter for a couple of minutes and leave to rest in a warm place for a further 30 minutes.  By this time the batter should look risen and be covered with tiny bubbles.  Heat a flat griddle pan or large heavy based non-stick frying pan over a medium high heat.

Generouls butter the insides of 4 crumpet rings or 9cm chefs rings and place them on the griddle or in the frying pan.  Warm for a minute or two. Using a dessertspoon drop 3 large spoonfuls of the crumpet batter into each ring it should come up about 1.5 cm up the sides of each ring but no more.  Cook for 9-12 minutes or until lots of bubbles have risen to the surface and burst and the tops look dry and set.  Carefully lift off the rings - this shouldn't be too difficult as the crumpets will ease back from the sides when they are read y (use an oven cloth and take care as they will be hot)  Flip the crumpets over with a spatula and cook on the other side for 2 minutes or until golden brown. You can keep these crumpets warm while the remaining batter is prepared or serve immediately spread with lots of butter.  Cook the rest of the crumpets in the same way as the first washing and rebuttering the rings well before each use.  The crumpets can  also be cooled and then roasted.

When dealing with the last few crumpets the batter may have thickened up and the bubbles take longer to burst if this happens prick each one lightly with a cocktail stick.

Worth making a big batch.

Looking  forward  to these for  Saturday nights tea  -  thought I would post up  in case any of  you want to join me 

I love doing new recipes and playing around generally.