July 6, 2012 - 7:39am
Sourdough Crumpets
These are quite possibly the best thing I've ever made from my sourdough starter, and by far the quickest and easiest. Crumpets are my most favorite storebought baked item - they are soft & chewy with big, open holes on the top for the butter and honey to seep into. They are wonderful, and I had almost given up hope of making my own when I happened across this old recipe on the King Arthur website.
It worked like a charm!
- For this batch I mixed 1 1/2 cups of my leftover 100% hydration starter (right out of the fridge where I'd been collecting it every time I made bread) with 1.5 teaspoons white granulated sugar, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Almost immediately, it gets very, very bubbly.
- I poured the batter into 3.5" crumpet rings on my pancake griddle in a big dollop that slowly spread to fill the rings about 1/4 inch deep before rising.
- I only have 4 crumpet rings, so once the sides started to set, I removed the rings and poured 4 more while letting the first ones cook until there were lots of bubbles on top and the sides were getting dry.
- I flipped them briefly, and took them off the griddle.
- I ate some hot right off the griddle (soooo good), and heated the rest up the toaster later on.
- To serve them, spread with butter and honey and watch them disappear into the holes, saturating the crumpet with buttery goodness. They are not crispy like english muffins.
- 1 1/2 cups starter made 12 crumpets.
I have since tried this recipe with freshly fed sourdough starter, with less luck. It seems to work best with the old leftovers I collect in my fridge over several weeks. I also tried a half whole wheat version, but the texture just isn't the same as with 100% white flour.
I'll be making these again!
Share
Comments
I wonder if the older sourdough is more broken down, and newer dough could be used at a higher hydration?
Thanks for sharing, I'll have to try this :)
I am only familiar with storebought crumpets and they seem very similar (taste and texture) to the storebought English Muffins-bread-y and somewhat chewy. The only difference seems to be the appearance-crumpets are flatter and one side is holey, as if it was cooked on 1 side only.
So are homemade crumpets perhaps more like a yeasted pancake in taste and texture? I made this SD crumpet recipe and that is what they reminded me of. Very soft and quite delicious. A great way to use extra,old starter but very much like a tall pancake in taste and texture.
I love this recipe. I have made them as plain, banana, rasberry and blueberry crumpets. So easy and delicious! Thanks for this simple and easy way to use sourdough starter....
I am definitely going to try this, looks like the easiest idea yet for using up excess starter.
Clazar - I'm in the UK, home of crumpets, and they shouldn't be bready, they should be springy, chewy and emphatically full of holes, like a sponge. Large holes should be their defining characteristic, and there should be no regular crumb in between - the holes and springy dough *are* the crumb.
What you say about them being 'bready' explains the fact the web is full of people asking what the difference is between crumpets and English muffins. Sounds like your problem is sub-standard crumpets. If you can mix them up, someone's doing it wrong.
Eta the ones in the shops here also have a distinct, vaguely sour flavour, similar to sourdough. This makes me think they may in fact be made of a sourdough type starter, or at least are purposely imitating it - and that makes me wonder if using up excess starter is how they originated. All I've heard about bakeries pre WWII suggests they commonly maintained levain-type starters rather than using commercial yeast.
These are brilliant!
Only criticism is they are salty. Next time I would half the salt. Also, wrestling a vigorous, glutinous starter into a cup measure is challenging. Weight measure would be better (I make it about 350g).
Now I am confused as to why any sourdough instructions say 'discard starter' when they could say 'make crumpets'.
I've been reducing the salt in my subsequent batches, too. They really are the best way to use up old starter, aren't they!!
Definitely. I tried sourdough waffles at the weekend, but they didn't make my skirt fly up, and you need to think 12 hours ahead. I like the immediacy of this.
'Help! Ermintrude's escaping from the jar again!'
*slurp* *plop* *sizzle*
'Crisis averted!'
Hmm I just tried making some mix from my refrigerated discarded starter but it didn't froth up at all when I added the baking powder. Is the starter supposed to be at room temperature before you mix it?
Hi Paladine, the recipe calls for baking soda, not baking powder. Baking soda should give you a big, immediate reaction once it hits the acidic starter. Hope that is all the problem was - you can easily fix it next time!
Hi Bryoria,
I meant to say Baking Soda just a mistype. But I think it could be to do with the flours I had in my discarded starter - I just found out there was quite a lot of rye in there (the packaging is in Polish so I didn't know). I just started a new starter with just white flour (550 TYP) so hopefully in a couple of weeks I will have some nice crumpets.
Thanks :)
Very weird that the baking soda didn't do anything! Hope your refresh will do the trick. The crumpets are worth the wait!
I use a continuous starter process hence I don't have discard, but I just set aside a portion of starter and left it at room temp without feeding for a couple of days (that increases the acidity, which is what makes the baking soda work).
Unfortunately I had the pan a bit too hot, and they also stuck to the rings so they were a bit burnt but still pretty good.
hod with a couple of 'tweaks'. Quite simply the best thing I have ever made with sourdough.
1) Make sure you oil or grease your rings well. Not just a wipe but a nice coating. I used sunflower oil. I didnt have to re-oil them. Just the first time.2) Grease the pan but not too much oil..3) Preheat pan and the ring on a medium low temperature. I played about with this until I found the sweet spot where the crumpets cook without burning the bottoms. Too hot and they burn on the bottom, to cool and they don't bubble and take ages until they are done. I had it worked out after two test crumpets which my son and I immediately ate from the pan :-)4) I only had one ring so cooked each one individually. I cooked them until the tops start to set then flipped them over to finish them. They will come out of the ring easily when ready to do so. When flipped them I put the ring back around them so they stayed nice and straight at the sides.5) I started putting a lid on the pan and found this helped the insides & tops to set much better 6) I used a pair of clean pliers to lift the rings up check the bottoms every now and then to make sure they were not burning. A bit finicky but you get the hang of it after a couple of test crumpets.7) When the bubbles start to appear, I 'helped' the holes by pricking the bubbles with a wooden skewer stick.There are certain things I still miss from home. One of them is crumpets. But no longer will I crave them as I have just made my first batch using this method.
Quite simply the best thing I have ever made with sourdough.
1) Make sure you oil or grease your rings well. Not just a wipe but a nice coating. I used sunflower oil. I didnt have to re-oil them. Just the first time.
2) Grease the pan but not too much oil..
3) Preheat pan and the ring on a medium low temperature. I played about with this until I found the sweet spot where the crumpets cook without burning the bottoms. Too hot and they burn on the bottom, to cool and they don't bubble and take ages until they are done. I had it worked out after two test crumpets which my son and I immediately ate from the pan :-)
4) I only had one ring so cooked each one individually. I cooked them until the tops start to set then flipped them over to finish them. They will come out of the ring easily when ready to do so. When flipped them I put the ring back around them so they stayed nice and straight at the sides.
5) I started putting a lid on the pan and found this helped the insides & tops to set much better
6) I used a pair of clean pliers to lift the rings up check the bottoms every now and then to make sure they were not burning. A bit finicky but you get the hang of it after a couple of test crumpets.
7) When the bubbles start to appear, I 'helped' the holes by pricking the bubbles with a wooden skewer stick.
I hope this helps :-)
What a beauty! Since being gluten free for 5yrs I’ve missed crumpets probably the most! Now I’m reintroducing gluten thanks to sourdough and I’d love to make these! The discards you keep in the fridge: do u feed them or just keep them as is until u have enough to cook with them? 💛