Crumpet Fail No.2 (Argh!)

What is wrong with me? Why can’t I make crumpets? I have the odd cooking fail every now and again but seriously, this is getting out of hand. Thank you to everyone who sent me recipes after this heart breaker. I had a hard time choosing which one to make. In the end I decided to go with the super detailed advice from Bea of Bea’s of Bloomsbury.

She sent me a fairly lengthy e-mail about gluten strands, warmth of ingredients and resting of batter. I tried to take in as much information as I could but was really quite relieved when she followed it up with a link to this recipe, which apparently “seems to address the issues involved (temperature, gluten strands, and a loose batter)”. Apart from following Bea’s suggestion to replace the powdered milk and water with warm milk (low fat 2%), I followed the recipe to the letter. It seemed to be going well. Note how it mentions the resting is important to let the gases build up inside? Well, check out those gases above!

I then set it aside for the second resting and it rose up like a yeasty batter Behemoth. I was feeling incredibly optimistic at this stage, even pouring myself a celebratory G&T and letting forth a satisfied chuckle. The skillet was preheated and the crumpet rings oiled. And then this is where it all went wrong. I followed the instructions closely, “cook for 4-8 minutes over medium heat”. I tried it first in the rings and then got bored with the failures and started free styling, as you can see from the finished ‘crumpets’. This seemed to work a bit better as they do have some holes at least.

The most frustrating thing is that they are so very nearly there. The taste of the batter is spot on. The texture within is cooked perfectly - spongy and light and not at all raw. I just wish I knew why they don’t have more holes. Seriously people, I am begging you - help me please! I’ve found my cooking nemesis and I will not be beaten.

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