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Crumpets
(England.) Mix 1 pint warm milk heated on the fire, 1 ounce butter, 1 egg, some salt and flour to make a batter. Add 1/4 pint fresh yeast. Cover and let it rise 15 minutes, near fire. Bake in large muffin rings. Serve hot, cut in half, buttered, for supper or five o'clock tea.
A workable batter formula, but two things are left to the cook's judgement: the amount of flour and what "bake" means. Crumpets are cooked on a griddle in rings, not in an oven.
- The hinge: batter consistencyAdd flour only until the batter pours thickly from the spoon in a ribbon. The quantity is left to judgement; something in the region of 10-12 oz (2 to 2 1/2 cups) is a starting point, but the 1/4 pint of yeast liquid counts as liquid too and more flour may be wanted. Too stiff and no holes form on top; too loose and it runs under the rings.
- 1/4 pint fresh yeastThis means liquid barm or brewer's yeast skimmed from ale, which was weak and mostly water. Substitute about 2 teaspoons instant or 1 packet active dry yeast, or 3/4 oz fresh cake yeast.
- Rising timeFifteen minutes suited a large charge of active barm. With modern yeast, allow 45 to 60 minutes in a warm place until the surface is domed and bubbling, then use the batter promptly while the bubbles are alive.
- Warm milkHeat to blood temperature only, about 100-110F. Milk noticeably hotter than that will check the yeast, and above roughly 130F it will kill it. Melt the butter into it and let it cool before the yeast goes in.
- "Bake in large muffin rings"Cook on a lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet over moderate heat, about 300-325F, with greased rings 3 to 4 inches across. Pour in batter to a depth of about half an inch and cook 8-10 minutes until the top is dry and pierced with holes, then lift the ring and give the second side a minute or two.
- Salt"Some salt" is about 1 teaspoon for a pint of milk. Under-salted crumpets taste flat under butter.
- Yield and servingAbout ten to twelve crumpets from a pint of milk. The instruction to split them belongs to the muffin tradition; crumpets are normally toasted whole and buttered on the holed side so the butter sinks in.
Crumpets belong to the British griddle-bread family alongside pikelets, muffins and Welsh bakestone cakes, all of them cooked on a griddle or bakestone rather than in an oven. The characteristic pitted top comes from gas escaping through a batter loose enough to hold open channels, which is why the recipe is a pour rather than a dough. The name is generally traced to older words for a thin curled cake, and regional usage still divides over whether a pikelet is a ringless crumpet or a different thing entirely. The recipe's own "five o'clock tea" places it on the English tea table.