Despite baking being my first and most long-lasting passion I’ve deprived myself of its joys over the years. I think that’s the thing about baking—there’s always a reason not to. Whether it’s lack of occasion, nobody to bake for or eat with, the potential time or effort involved or the relentless message of diet culture’s dos and don’ts**, or, in the case of crumpets, pure convenience, there’s always a reason to say no.

Supermarket crumpets are admittedly exceptionally delicious and exceptionally convenient. They do exactly the job you would want a crumpet to do, at least when it comes to the end result. But in focusing exclusively on the end ‘buttery-crumpet-in-mouth’ result, you miss the joy that can be found in watching yeast at work, the temptation to peek as the batter rises, the satisfaction of watching nervously to see if the little bubbles you’ve worked, actually not very hard, to get will form on top when batter hits pan, and the slightly giddy feeling you can expect from flipping the crumpets when almost done to reveal a gloriously golden brown bottom (“Alexa play ‘little bitty pretty one’ so I can feel like Matilda”). I’m almost certain motivational speakers are referring to crumpet making when they say ‘it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.'

I hesitate to admit for how many years I’ve wanted to make crumpets and never found the reason, but all that has changed in the last 10 days and now I have made what feels like thousands of them. The irony of developing a small batch bakes recipe is that I end up with a very large batch in the process. No complaints from me here though, I have absolutely adored this particular testing process. Probably because it started badly... the first batch looked so promising, but alas, I cut them open and was met with pure dough (remember kids, it’s what’s on the inside that counts x). But you know what they say—rock bottom means things can only get better!! (I can’t stop with the motivational quotes today, apologies and also, you’re welcome).

I ended up with six rounds of testing to settle upon the perfect small batch of crumpets and I’ve shared some of the details of that testing below. It’s been an educational week actually and I’ve learned many things, including what my own preferences for crumpets are. I’m exceptionally pleased with the final bake.

So without further ado, let’s talk crumpets!

The Quest

As I said, this testing process has clarified what it is I’m looking for when it comes to the perfect homemade crumpet. ‘Homemade’ is important here because I do think that no matter how you make your crumpet at home, it will always be slightly different to a shop-bought crumpet.

In my initial research I figured there were two main crumpet categories we could aim for: soft and fluffy, or soft and chewy. I would have bet most of my life’s savings on preferring the latter (chew is one of the best textures out there if you ask me), but wanted to do my due diligence and give fluff a chance. Well reader I can confirm that you should always follow your gut (motivational quote number 4?), chew is most definitely what I prefer. A fluffy crumpet is delicious but I sort of think that if you’re looking for fluff you’re better off making a pancake or a muffin. A crumpet is a crumpet purely because of its deliciously spongy resistance.

Having figured out the goal almost immediately I then went on to test bread flour vs plain flour, milk vs water, yeast vs. chemical leavening and finally hydration.

The final stage in the quest was to get the perfect batch size. I was aiming for a perfect batch of 4 crumpets. My reasoning for this being that you can buy a pack of 6 in the supermarket which in many ways implies that 6 is a standard batch size. 2, to me, is a single-serving and as the tagline of this series says, my aim with these recipes is to serve more than one but fewer than many. So if 6 is standard, and 2 is a single-serving then you need not be a mathematician to work out why I settled on a small batch of 4 crumpets. HOWEVER, based on my final recipe, in order to get 4 crumpets we would have needed to measure 1/8th of a teaspoon (2-3g) of several key ingredients and, unless you have scales that measure to a decimal point, that’s slightly more tricky. So I rounded up slightly meaning my final recipe uses 1 tsp instead but that does mean we’re looking at 5 crumpets instead of 4. A good compromise? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

The Findings

There are many variables to test when it comes to crumpets and I could write an enormously long newsletter about all of them but I fear that may bore you, so instead I’ll summarise.

Test 1: Bread Flour Vs Plain Flour

Why I tested this: Bread flour has a higher percentage of protein (around 12% as opposed to plain flour which is about 9%) which helps build stronger gluten bonds. More gluten means more ability to trap gas and create signature crumpet holes.

Result: Honestly, neither were great, but the bread flour had noticeably more chew than the plain flour crumpet, which was fluffier. Note: as I said above, chew is more about a sponginess- it doesn’t mean the crumpet is tough!

Test 2: Milk Vs Water

Why I tested this: Milk would add more flavour than water. Milk would also react with bicarbonate of soda, if used, as bicarb needs an acid in order to create air for the crumpet to rise. But milk also weakens gluten formation slightly, making the crumpet more tender.

Result: I preferred the flavour of the crumpet made with milk as it had slightly more depth. I figured it would also give me more options when it came to using a chemical leavening.

Test 3: Chemical Leavening vs Just Yeast

Why I tested this: Most recipes use a mixture of both yeast and either baking powder or bicarbonate of soda. I initially tested with baking powder but then having decided on using milk I thought I would test with bicarb.

Result: For the first test I was far too heavy handed with bicarb and the crumpet was far too fluffy with little to no chew. I reduced the amount for test 3 but still found that not only did I prefer the flavour from the crumpet with just yeast, I preferred the texture too.

Test 4: Hydration

Why I tested this: A higher hydration should result in larger bubbles and a slightly more open structure, as opposed to a lower hydration which would have a tighter structure. I tested a batter with 115% hydration and one with 125% hydration.

Result: The crumpet with a higher hydration was pretty near perfect. The batter itself developed more bubbles, and the resulting crumpet had a lovely chew (from larger holes) and a delicious flavour.

Test 5: Doubting Myself (plus timings)

Why I tested this: I really thought I was set on my bread flour, milk, yeast and high hydration crumpet but then the old self-doubt crept in and I wondered if I had tested the raising agents thoroughly enough. I decided to test the timings of when I added said agents. I did one control test (where yeast was added directly to the flour then milk added) with the recipe I thought I had settled on. Then I did one test where I let the yeast and sugar bloom in warm milk before then adding the mixture to the flour 15 minutes later. Then for my final test I used my control recipe but then 15 minutes before the end of the proving period I added bicarb mixed with water (testing whether it was the addition of bicarb that made the crumpet too fluffy, or whether the bicarb was just added too early).

Result: I found test 3 (with bicarb) still too fluffy and the taste was more akin to a pancake. Test 1 and 2 were very similar but I simply preferred both taste and texture of test 1. That, coupled with the fact that test 1 is also the simplest recipe, confirmed my thoughts and the final recipe!!

The Final Crumpet

Hopefully you can see that I took the quest of the perfect small batch of crumpets seriously. One doubt I had (potentially still have) with my final recipe is whether it has enough holes, which could be increased with a chemical leavening, however I really think that the flavour and texture of my final crumpets is the best out of any test I tried and I would always choose flavour and texture over looks. I think the fact I have made, and eaten, so many crumpets over the last 10 days and I’m still not sick of them (would go as far as to say I would actively choose to eat them again tomorrow) is evidence enough of their success. Anyway, I think it’s about time I stop teasing you and give you the recipe!!

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