Crumpets

Classic Brit treat that brings back memories of lazy sunday mornings at my grandparents house. When dino said he had a recipe I asked him for it for the wiki. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• Another 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups water, warm

Method

In a bowl, combine the warm water, sugar, and yeast. The yeast should bubble a bit. In a separate bowl, sift together the 1/2 cup of the flour, 2nd 1/2 tsp sugar, the salt, the flour, and baking powder. To the yeast + water, add 1/2 cup of the flour, and whisk well to combine. To that mixture, add the dry ingredients, and whisk or beat with a spoon until all the flour is completely combined. Yes, it will be a watery dough. This is a good thing. Beat it up for about 30 seconds or so, until you give the dough a workout.

Then, cover with a warm towel, and set in a warm place for 30 minutes or so, for it to rise. After it rises, heat a skillet on the stove over medium heat. Add some oil to the skillet. You want the heat to be a little less than when you make a pancake. If you have it, set a greased ring mold on the skillet to receive the crumpet. If you don't, your crumpets will look a little wonky. That's OK. No worries. If the dough has not gotten very bubbly in that 30 minutes, you need more time to let the dough rise. It should rise and be filled with bubbles.

Add the dough to the ring molds in about 1/3 cup increments (or however much it takes to fill the ring mold 1/3 of the way up). If you don't have ring molds, heave about 1/3 cup of the batter onto the stove. Add a few drops of oil around the crumpets if you've got them naked. Otherwise, just let the suckers hang out in their little molds. When the bubbles come up to the surface of the crumpet, and break open, you're about ready to flip. You want the tops to sort of dry out.

Flip over the crumpets, and fry on the second side until it's dry on that side. Let them cool for about 30 minutes (or else the crumb won't set properly), and then split in half with a knife. If you're a vegan or a fatty, you'll not care about the crumb. You'll want to eat right now. That's OK. Grab a bread knife, and split the crumpet in half. Heat up more oil on the skillet. Pan fry the insides on the skillet, and eat, piled high with your favourite jam or marmalade. These freeze extremely well. But I made about a dozen of them, and my husband and I ate them in one sitting, while talking about various people we know. They inspire lovely conversation.