CRUMPETS

This is essentially a delicious way to eat fermented sourdough starter. I don’t think I had eaten a crumpet for twenty years before making my own and don’t think I would ever eat another again unless they were home made. There are many good recipes around and sourdough makes them especially delicious. Eat the crumpets fresh from the pan or allow to cool and toast them. They might not be quite so spongy as the supermarket version but the flavour is much better and they soak up butter just as well. Patience is the key when frying them; don’t turn up the heat too high or flip them too soon. I find the bubbles forming and popping mesmerising; crumpets have an excellent effort-to-satisfaction ratio and are a good use for excess starter.

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Step 1

1. Place all the stage 1 ingredients in a 1.5 litre (23/4 pint) jar or jug, mix and cover and leave in the fridge for 10–14 hours. Remove the batter from the fridge and leave at room temperature for 3–4 hours. Alternatively, don’t chill the batter but just leave it at room temperature for 4–6 hours.

Step 2

2. Half an hour before you want to fry the crumpets add the sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda for stage 2 to the jug and stir well. The acid in the starter will react with the bicarbonate of soda and produce lovely bubbles.

Step 3

3. Lightly grease the inside of 10cm (4 in) crumpet rings with butter. Heat a large, flat, non-stick frying pan that will fit at least 2 rings inside, over a low to medium heat. When the pan is hot, put the rings in the pan and place a small piece of butter in each ring. Pour approximately 60g (21/2 oz) of batter into each ring. Push the batter to the edges of the ring with a spoon if needed they should be about half full. If you have tall rings you could make bigger crumpets – use approximately 100g (31/2 oz) batter per ring.

Step 4

4. During frying, the batter should start to rise in the rings and bubbles will form and pop. When the tops no longer look wet and the crumpets are fully cooked through, remove the rings and flip the crumpets to briefly fry the tops or remove from pan and cool on a wire cooling rack to toast later (this should take 6–7 minutes). They should be golden brown on the bottom – keep peeking at the bottom as they fry and adjust the temperature up or down as needed. I often do a test version on its own first to get a feel for the correct heat of the pan. Fry all the crumpets once you begin so the batter doesn’t lose its vigour and liquifies.

Step 5

5. These are best eaten straight from the pan with butter and jam or honey. Alternatively, they can be frozen on the day that they are cooked.