101 uses for crumpet rings Part IV – actual Crumpets

So here we are eight weeks in to the mission to become healthier. Mike the trainer arrived this week armed with his tape measure, his policeman’s flip-up note pad, and the world’s smallest pencil, and set about measuring me. To date, I’m 16lbs down and 15cms in which is good progress, but unfortunately treats have to stay few and far between for the time being.

That said, I thought it was about time to publish a 20% recipe.

Last summer I had a birthday lunch at The Camberwell Arms. For my starter I had homemade crumpets topped with shrimps in lobster butter and a sweet pickled cucumber. It was amazing. I wrote to them afterwards asking if they’d share the recipe with me, and the chef Michael Davies kindly wrote me a very long email describing the process. This is the crumpet recipe; I’ll share the shrimp topping another time.

What to use – this made 10 crumpets

• 175g self raising flour
• 175g plain flour
• 14g instant yeast (two standard sachets)
• 1tsp of sugar
• 350ml warm milk
• 150-200ml warm water
• half a tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1tsp salt

How to use it

You’ll need to start the process at least 2 hours before you want to eat the crumpets.

Weigh out the flours, add the dry yeast and mix well in a large bowl.

Dissolve the sugar in warm milk and pour into the flour, then beat until you have a smooth batter. (I used an electric whisk to do this. Big mistake. The batter quickly attached itself to the whisks turning into a big batter lollypop, leaving half the flour behind. I scraped off the mixture, warmed a bit more milk and added that, then continued to mix by hand.)

Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave for 20 minutes up to an hour, until the mix has started to bubble. It will increase in size so make sure you have a bowl big enough.

Mix the bicarb and salt with warm water and beat the water mix into the batter until you achieve the consistency of double cream. I used about three quarters of the water. The batter will collapse but will come back up again when you…

Cover and rest again for another 20 mins.

Grease a small cast iron or non stick pan, and put your crumpet rings in. Ladle the batter into each ring so it fills to the top.

Cook on a low heat on one side until the top has set. You’ll see bubbles forming, popping, and then drying to form those unmistakable crumpet holes. Once the top is dry, you take them out and set aside until you’re ready to eat them.

When you want to eat them, just toast them like you would a shop bought crumpet, and eat with as much butter as possible. Or jam. Or whatever you like on a crumpet. Ooh marmite…

 

Mmm rating: a resounding mm mm mm

What to watch: I am currently watching (and loving) the return of Christian Slater in Mr Robot