Oh woe is me! My crumpets didst fail!...........Yes, well I considered writing this whole article in saga-format as befits the title, but it's Friday and I want to get this written before apéro.
Wintery Sundays seem to bring out our British roots, therefore I was recently inspired to make another British tea-time classic: crumpets. Oops.
I mean no disprespect to the recipe I used but the crumpets I produced, whilst having a crumpety taste, were a complete joke with regards to shape and dodgy with regards to texture. I think this was more down to a lack of patience on my part than anything else, although I found the description for the batter "the consistency of thick cream" somewhat vague, as living here I am used to working with stiff crème fraîche or the runny crème liquide.
Not having any 'crumpet rings' I followed the advice and washed out a tuna can with both ends cut out. Despite oiling it, my batter stuck to the ring like superglue so I abandoned the use of a ring and just deposited quantities of batter in a vaguely round shape. This made it impossible, however, to follow the recipe's advice for assessing the thickness of the batter, so when the first ones were clearly too solid I experimented with adding more water. In the end I just got a bit frustrated and impatient, with possible contributing factors of husbands and dogs under my feet, and the traces of a hangover.
Result: Weird-shaped splats with a crumpety taste. Pretty good when slathered in butter and jam or Marmite.
Conclusion: Buy some rings and be much more patient next time.
I will try the same recipe again, but maybe not until next winter...
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