A Spoonful of Sugar

This year, I'm using Dan Lepard's recipe from "Baking With Passion". Dan, like St Delia, is very precise and meticulous but unlike Delia he doesn't coddle you with unnecessary steps or utensils. And more to the point, he really does have an obvious passion about bread and cakes. Delia seems to have lost hers - probably around about the time she turned into a drill sergeant.

So, without further ado, I sieved 450g plain (all-purpose flour) into a large bowl along with a 7g sachet of easyblend (instant) yeast and 1 tsp of caster (superfine?) sugar. I sieved from a great height, so my crumpets will be extra airy and my kitchen is now extra festive in appearance. After making a well in the centre I poured in (a little at a time) 350mL of semi-skimmed milk and mineral water (700mL total) which I'd heated till just above tepid in the microwave.

As I learnt a few years ago, you must pour the milk in slowly and beat vigorously unless you really enjoy chasing lumps through batter. The only recourse when this happens is to drag out an electric whisk and blitz the mixture. As this means extra washing up, I went slow. After about five minutes of whisking I had a medium thick batter which was slightly resistant to my most vigorous whisking (not that this says much - my arm was tired). I then covered the bowl with cling film and a fluffy tea towel and left it to stand for two hours.

After an hour the batter was full of bubbles and heading nicely towards doubling itself. I managed to drag myself away from hugging my newly found cookbook and grabbed my steel cooking rings and chefs pan in anticipation of cooking before the two hours were up. Unfortunately, I don't have any proper crumpet rings, but this isn't a massive problem. Steel rings (such as you would use for mousses or anything else you fancy moulding) work pretty well. The only downside being that you do have to extract the half-cooked crumpet from them and then flip it. The first crumpet always ends up splatted over the pan, but it still tastes good. Apparently you can also get away with a tuna tin (clean!!) with both ends removed. This is probably closer to the correct size, but sounds absolutely lethal to me.

All was going well thus far. Unfortunately, it all started to fall apart once I started cooking. Not a good start to the New Year. First, despite all my efforts with butter or oil, the crumpets stuck to the steel rings. This bemused me somewhat, as the previous year they had not stuck at all! Secondly, whilst the batter was very active in the bowl, it just wasn't rising when in the pan cooking. My crumpets were both stuck and leaden. After much cursing and tears, I ended up with the small pile you see above. I have to admit that I gave up about half-way through the batter. It kept bubbling away and getting thicker and thicker, no matter how much additional water I added to get it back to the proper consistency. In a fit of pique, I tossed it down the sink - its probably terrorising innocent sewer-dwellers as it truly did have a mind of its own.

So, I'm not sure where that leaves our fledgling tradition. Dave did (very kindly) eat the sorry specimens I managed to salvage and thus far hasn't died a horrible death, so they can't have been too bad. I think I'll probably have another go in 2004, but I'll revert back to Bill Granger's recipe from "Sydney Food". Dan Lepard's recipe is below if anyone feels the need to try it.

From "Baking With Passion" by Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington

Crumpets

Makes 12 crumpets

450g plain flour
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 sachet fast-action yeast (7g)
350mL skimmed milk
350mL bottled spring water
1 teaspoon Maldon salt, ground fine
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
sunflower oil

Sift the flour into a bowl with the sugar and yeast. Warm the skimmed milk and water to about 20C, then use a hand whisk to beat this liquid into the flour to make a smooth batter. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to stand at room temperature for about 2 hours. The batter will more than double in size before falling slightly.

Beat in the salt and bicarbonate of soda. Leave to rest for 10 minutes while you heat a griddle or heavy frying pan over a low flame.

You must now judge whether your batter is the right consistency, which should be like that of unwhipped single cream. If too thick, the honeycomb of holes, which is the defining point of the crumpet will not occur. If too thin, the batter will run from under the rings. If the cooking surface is too hot, the batter will burn before the crumpet is ready to be turned; if too cool, the crumpet will rise incompletely and be leaden. Test both batter and heat of pan by cooking a spoonful of batter before proceeding. If the batter is too thick, thin with a little water; if too thin, beat in a little more flour.

Moisten a piece of kitchen paper with oil and rub over the inside of the metal rings and the hot surface of the griddle, placing the rings on top. Put 3 tablespoons of batter into each ring. Cook for 6-8 minutes or until the surface is set and filled with holes. Turn the crumpets and rings over with a palette knife or spatula and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. The first side should be a chestnut brown, the second only barely coloured, and the crumpets about 3cm thick. Lift off the rings with a cloth. Eat at once, or leave to cool and toast the pale side. Serve with butter and jam, or honey.