Authentic English crumpet recipe (or) Someone from England, please help!

[MollyAnn]

Every year our Girl Scout service unit puts on an 'International Tea' for Thinking Day. It is a time to learn about and celebrate different places and cultures.

This year our troop decided on England. Dd wants to make authentic English crumpets and tea as our food to share. Problem is there are too many recipes out there, most from American websites. One site said only baking soda is used for crumpets but some recipes call for yeast.

If you are from England and make crumpets, what recipe do you follow? And are you willing to share?

[redsquirrel]

Well, I have the cookbook "Great British Cooking: A Well Kept Secret" by Jane Garvey. The recipes are all adapted for American cooks

 

 

2 and 1/2 cup flour

2/3 cup water

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

salt

2 tablespoon oil

 

Does that help? I can type out the rest if you need it. But it is the standard crumpet thing. Cookie cutters, a griddle etc

 

My kids are big crumpet fans and I just buy them at the grocery store. And you can always use English muffins. That is very close to a crumpet.

[Amira]

Some people like their crumpets with both yeast and baking soda. You might look at this recipe to see what you think.

 

http://helengraves.co.uk/2010/01/cracking-crumpets/

[TheBugs]

I was doing a little research on this because I love crumpets and never thought to make them. I think authentic crumpets must use yeast or it won't taste right but I think it should also include baking soda because I read that helps make the best holes. A good crumpet has lots of holes on top imho.

[mumto2]

This isn't crumpets but it is a great website that is centered on traditional British baking with the history included. I thought it might be helpful. http://grandmaabson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/try-famous-anzac-biscuits.html We love the anzac biscuits. I think karo syrup with a bit of molasses might work for golden syrup if anyone wants to try them.

[Livelovelearn]

200ml/7fl oz warm milk made up to 15fl oz with warm water

 

12oz strong flour

 

1 tsp easy-blend yeast

 

¼ tsp salt1 tsp sugar

 

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

 

Put the flour in a bowl and mix with the yeast, salt and sugar. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk-and-water mixture. Beat together to a thick, glutinous batter.

 

Leave to rise for about an hour, until it has doubled in size to a bubbling mass.

 

Beat the bicarbonate of soda into the mixture and leave to rise again for half an hour.

 

Heat a large frying pan and brush the base with vegetable oil.

 

Brush some crumpet rings, metal biscuit cutters or egg rings with vegetable oil and put them in the pan to heat up.

 

Spoon in enough batter to cover the base – don’t spread it out, let the bubbly gloop lazily spread to fill the base. Thinner crumpets work better than thick ones, so one heaped dessertspoonful is plenty for a 3in/7cm ring.

 

Turn the heat down as low as it will go and cook the crumpets until they are dry and set on top. This can take 10 minutes or more.

 

Towards the end of cooking you can use a skewer to encourage some of the bubbles to burst to give that characteristic holey top.

 

Turn the crumpets and cook for a couple of minutes on the other side (if the ring is deep, the crumpet may not be touching the surface of the pan, but that doesn’t matter).

 

Ease out of their rings and leave to cool on a wire rack. Eat toasted and spread with butter.

[Livelovelearn]

^^The above is the recipe that I use. Usually, I try to let the mixture rise for at least two hours before adding the soda. Afterwards, 45 minutes -1 hour.

 

However, different people use different recipes. Traditionally, no soda is used, but it helps to make the characteristic holes and you will find it in the majority of modern recipes.You will also find variations in flour and milk to water ratio.

[MollyAnn]

Thank you all very much!!

It helps a lot!!