Homemade Crumpets

It wasn’t too long ago I visited “Crumpet” in East Vic Park and tried their homemade crumpets.

This may seem strange but I never actually comprehended the fact that you could make your own crumpets….they were simply the circular pancakes with those characteristic holes in them that you bought from Coles when they’re on special. Like a pikelet but crunchier on the outside when toasted and perfectly placed holes in the top allowed for ultimate butter soakage before adding my mum’s homemade jam (or if your more traditional, lots of butter with honey).

I actually keep a packet of crumpets in my freezer because unbeknown to me – It’s one of the only things I feel like eating when I’m sick. Go Figure?

The crumpets at “Crumpet” in Vic Park were out of this world. They came out freshly toasted so when the lashings of butter and honey were slathered on top, it melted instantly.

The crunchy outside and soft, doughy middle epitomised what a homemade crumpet should be all about. 

*Note that Crumpet has now opened under new ownership and the food is much less impressive*

I stopped for a moment and wondered why I never see these on other brekky menu’s or in any café’s at all…

 I came across this recipe for homemade crumpets that actually made my tastebuds shriek a little with excitement.

After specifically buying yeast (hey? It’s not a staple ingredient I typically have in my pantry), I added warm milk, flour and other ingrediants - and this was left to rise for over an hour (or overnight as I couldn’t risk waking up with my usual hunger and having to wait over an hour, plus prep time for my crumpets!).

The recipe mentioned that you need to use egg rings to pour the batter in over the hot fry pan. I didn’t understand the importance of this, at first…it didn’t take long until I realised why the egg rings were an integral factor…

Again, egg rings are not part of my cooking utensils as I hardly ever find it essential that my eggs are a perfect round shape.

Nevertheless, I fried up the crumpets without egg rings, realising very quickly that these hold the purpose of allowing more batter to be fried at a time and keeping the height of the crumpet whilst creating that highly risen, soft and doughy crumpet look that, lets face it, crumpets are all about.

Despite this, the crumpets still had the characteristic holes in them, were crunchy on the outside, and when eaten with lashings of butter, honey, jam, maple syrup… or all of the above… satisfied my sweet brekky craving!

Here are the results of my homemade crumpets:

Just imagine how cute they would have looked if I had egg rings for them to rise to their full potential ;)