Crumpets and Staffordshire Oatcakes!

[StripyPixieSocks]

I have been wanting to make both of these for ages and especially as Staffordshire Oatcakes don't even exist down here which is annoying... you can get food from every corner of the world except Staffordshire Oatcakes which are made 200 bloody miles away

*ahem* Anyway... today was the day and they both turned out to be an absolute success. The only thing would be I would use Wholemeal flour in the Staffs Oatcakes next time instead of white because it wasn't *quite* right but close enough for us!

We also learned to let the crumpet rings heat up in the pan for a few minutes otherwise no matter how much you greased them they stuck solid!

We have a spray bottle with half and half Olive Oil and Water (basically what you get in those hideouslly overpriced aerosol cans in the supermarkets because you get an extremely fine coating on the pan instead of things being swimming in oil.

Recipe links here here:

Crumpets: http://www.bakingmad.com/recipes.aspx?nID=42&nSubID=91
Oatcakes: http://www.staffordshire.co.uk/Stafford ... Recipe.htm

... and the proof of the pudding:

Crumpets: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stripypixi ... otostream/
Oatcakes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stripypixi ... otostream/

We ate some of the Oatcakes with Sausages for lunch and just had a quick snack of a crumpet and I don't know why I didn't do these earlier... no more supermarket crap for us

[Millymollymandy]

Gosh, well done, I had no idea how crumpets were made and had never thought about it - I kind of assumed it was baking powder or bicarb not yeast that made those bubbles. The oatcakes sound and look lovely but are they good with sweet topping or better with savoury? Wrapped around a sausage is rather horribly reminiscent of saucisse galette (buckwheat pancake) which is the Breton national dish.....

[Jinwin]

That's funny. I was just wondering the other day how crumpets were made. Yours look perfect StripyPixieSocks! I'll have to get those 9cm rings it says you need and give it a go.

[thesunflowergal]

Wow fab, I am going to have a go too!! Sorry to sound silly but what did you use for the crumpet rings?

Thanks Nikki

[StripyPixieSocks]

Thanks :D

As for the sweet topping with the pancakes, I don't really know to be honest... I've never tried it, it tends to be a savoury thing like sausages or cheese and bacon or some such but then I'm not a fan of sweet things on pancakes anyway really! I don't see why not though, after all, you put honey on porridge etc...

You can put bicarb in the crumpets, some recipes put it in at the end for an extra lift but really, it doesn't need it and it saves on that horrible squeaky teeth feeling you get with some commercial crumpets which is why I like these ones as they are just soft and luscious!

We had a couple of crumpets last night before bed with the painkillers we have to have and they were amazing and we froze 8 and had 4 this morning and they are just as good even after being frozen... absolutely over the moon with them :)

Yep, I bought two 'egg poaching' (I think that's what they were called) rings from Wilkinsons for £1.99 but yes, you can buy them online all over the place usually called muffin rings or crumpet rings.

Never going back to buying crumpets ever again!!

[Shutsumon]

Both those recipes look awesome. I love oatcakes.

And crumpet rings are now on my list of things to buy :-)

I wonder what wholemeal crumpets would taste like.

[Millymollymandy]

I've just read the recipe for oatcakes again and I only have instant dried yeast - do you think this would work? Presumably I'd mix the yeast in with the milk and other ingredients and not bother with the waiting to froth up bit. I really fancy trying them as they sound yummy. I will report back on what they are like with golden or maple syrup slathered all over them.

P.S. Darn, they don't have any egg in them

[StripyPixieSocks]

We used fastbake instant dried yeast (we used 1tsp) so it should work I bunged it in with the milk and water and left it to re-hydrate for a while.

Good luck!

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks, I'm just wondering when I can introduce pudding into our diet again, as we've (mostly me ) just eaten a humungous great panful of tapioca with home made redcurrant coulis over the last 3 nights.