Chef Thomas
A Bloomer
A proper British bloomer, slashed deep and baked until the cuts open wide and the crust turns deep, glossy gold. The kind of loaf that makes the rest of the day feel deliberate.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Crumpets
Created by Chef Thomas
Homemade crumpets with a soft, spongy crumb and a top full of small holes ready to drink in melted butter, the kind of thing to make on a slow Sunday and toast all week.
Breads
British
Weeknight
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
25 min cook•1 hr 30 min total
Yield8 crumpets
It's the middle of January. The light goes by four and the kettle is on more or less constantly. This is crumpet weather. Not the bag from the supermarket, useful as it sometimes is, but a proper homemade crumpet, soft and a little tangy and full of those small holes that exist for the sole purpose of holding butter.
Making them yourself is one of those things that sounds harder than it is. A yeasted batter, an hour on the side of the kitchen, a heavy pan over a low heat, some metal rings to keep the batter in shape. That's it. The first batch will probably go wrong in some small way: too thick, too thin, too hot a pan. The second batch will be better. By the third you'll wonder why you ever bought them.
Watching the holes appear is the best bit. The batter goes into the ring glossy and silent, and then the bubbles start to rise, slowly at first and then in a quiet rush, bursting at the surface and leaving their record behind. When the top has gone from wet to matte, you know you've done it. I wrote it down in the notebook the first time I got it right: "Crumpets. January. Holes all the way through." That was enough.
Serve them toasted, with cold butter. Honey if you must. Marmite if you're that way inclined. We're only making dinner. Or breakfast. Or the small ceremony that gets you through a Tuesday afternoon in February.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
strong white bread flour
Quantity
225g
caster sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fast-action dried yeast
Quantity
1 teaspoon
whole milk
Quantity
300ml
warmed to blood temperature
warm water
Quantity
150ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
bicarbonate of soda
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
sunflower oil
Quantity
for greasing
good salted butter
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| strong white bread flour | 225g |
| caster sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| fast-action dried yeast | 1 teaspoon |
| whole milkwarmed to blood temperature | 300ml |
| warm water | 150ml |
| fine sea salt | 1 teaspoon |
| bicarbonate of soda | 1/2 teaspoon |
| sunflower oil | for greasing |
| good salted butter | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy frying pan or flat griddle
- •4 crumpet rings (about 8cm across)
- •Small palette knife
- •Wire cooling rack
- •Pastry brush
Instructions
- 1
Wake the yeast
Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the sugar and yeast on one side, the salt on the other. Pour in the warm milk and whisk hard for a couple of minutes until you have a smooth, thick batter, somewhere between pancake batter and double cream. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it somewhere warm for about an hour. It should rise, bubble, and start to smell faintly of beer. That smell is the whole point.
Blood temperature means you can hold a finger in the milk without flinching. Hotter than that and you'll kill the yeast before it has a chance to do anything useful. - 2
Loosen the batter
Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the warm water and stir it through the risen batter. It will hiss and foam a little. The batter should now be the consistency of thick pouring cream, loose enough to settle into a ring on its own but not so thin it runs out of one. If it feels too stiff, add a splash more warm water. Trust your eye on this. Cover and leave for another twenty minutes.
- 3
Prepare the rings and pan
Set a heavy frying pan or flat griddle over a low to medium heat. Brush the inside of your crumpet rings generously with sunflower oil, and brush the pan too. The pan needs to be properly hot before the batter goes in, but not so hot that it browns the bottoms before the holes have a chance to form. This is a low-and-slow business. Patience now is repaid later.
- 4
Cook the first side
Sit the rings in the pan and let them heat through for a minute. Spoon batter into each ring to a depth of about a centimetre, no more. Now wait. The magic happens in the next few minutes. Bubbles will start to rise through the batter and burst at the surface, leaving the small holes that crumpets are made for. The top should go from glossy and wet to matte and dry, the holes set in place like a record of what just happened. This takes around eight to ten minutes. If the bottom is browning before the top sets, your heat is too high. Lower it.
If the holes don't appear, the batter is too thick. Stir in a tablespoon of warm water and try again with the next batch. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. - 5
Flip briefly and finish
Once the tops are dry and the holes are set, lift the rings off (a small palette knife helps), flip the crumpets, and cook for another minute or two on the second side. Just enough to set the top. You don't want to colour it. The holey side is the side you're protecting. Lift them onto a wire rack and carry on with the rest of the batter, oiling the rings between batches.
- 6
Toast and butter
Crumpets are at their best when toasted, even fresh from the pan. Toast them on the holey side until the edges go golden and crisp, then lay a slab of cold salted butter on top and let it sink in. The holes do the rest. There are few better feelings than putting a warm crumpet in front of someone on a dark afternoon.
Chef Tips
- •Strong bread flour is what you want, not plain. The extra protein gives the batter the structure it needs to hold those holes open. Plain flour will work in a pinch but the crumpets will be denser for it.
- •The batter consistency is everything. Too thick and the bubbles can't rise; too thin and they burst before they set. Aim for thick pouring cream. If you're not sure, cook one and see what happens. Adjust the next.
- •Crumpet rings are worth owning if you're going to make these more than once. Failing that, well-scrubbed tuna tins with both ends removed do the same job and cost nothing.
- •Crumpets keep for two or three days in a tin and freeze well for a month. Toast them straight from frozen. They're arguably better the second day, when the crumb has tightened and the holes hold the butter even longer.
Advance Preparation
- •The batter can be made the night before and left in the fridge to rise slowly overnight. Bring it back to room temperature for half an hour before adding the bicarbonate of soda and cooking.
- •Cooked crumpets keep in an airtight tin for up to three days, or freeze well for a month. Always toast before eating, even on the day you make them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 80g)
Calories
145 calories
Total Fat
3 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
4 mg
Sodium
380 mg
Total Carbohydrates
23 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
5 g
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