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Baking for One: A Pair of Crumpets
Oct. 8th, 2011 09:44 amBack in February, I did my first experiment in using a yogurt maker to incubate small batches of yeast dough. This weekend I finally got back to the next experiment (which largely involved portion adjustment). One item wasn't quite as intended: I was going to use milk as the liquid but the dregs of the milk in the fridge smelled a little sour, so I used water with a splash of half-and-half to approximate it. I'm calling it milk in the recipe, just for simplicity.
A Pair of Crumpets
Start this the evening before you want the crumpets for breakfast.
Oil 2 glass yogurt cups with vegetable oil.
In a 1-cup pyrex measuring cup, heat 1/4 cup milk to body temperature.
Add a pinch of yeast and let it dissolve.
Add about 1/4 tsp vegetable oil and a very small pinch of salt.
Mix in 1/4 regular white flour until all the lumps are gone and the batter is smooth.
Pour the batter in equal portions into the two yogurt cups, cap them, and put them in the yogurt incubator with the timer set to go all night.
In the morning, heat a cast-iron or other heavy griddle over a low heat. Oil it lightly with some vegetable oil on a paper towel -- it shouldn't be hot enough to make the oil smoke. Oil the inner surface of a couple of muffin/egg rings and place them on the griddle while it's heating.
Pour the contents of each dough-cup into one of the rings. You'll probably need a small plastic scraper to get it all out. Use the scraper to spread the dough out in the ring so it fills the whole thing, if it isn't quite liquid enough to do so on its own.
Let the crumpets bake on the griddle until the top surface is non-liquid. If the temperature of the griddle is right, the bottom will be just nicely browned. (It may help to use a spatula to loosen it from the griddle as soon as possible so you can shift it around on the griddle more easily.) You should be able to lift the rings off without any problem if you oiled them properly. Remove the rings then turn the crumpets. If you're doing other cooking at this point and if you're using a griddle that holds heat well, turn the heat off at this point and you can just ignore the crumpets until you're ready to eat.
Results This worked much better than the larger volume (and the mistake of using too much volume per crumpet) that I tried last time. The dough/batter was exactly the right amount for 2 crumpets and they cooked through without any rawness in the middle or scorching on the outside. There weren't as many bubbles in the upper surface as I'm used to from commercial crumpets, which seems to mean that the dough wasn't quite liquid enough, so adjusting the milk:flour ratio may be called for. Also, although the yeast worked enough to leaven the crumpets adequately, the ferment looked a little weak -- not the energetic working that I got last time. Since the yogurt maker supplies a fixed temperature, this may have to do with the much longer time it fermented last time, but I think a small pinch of sugar may help kick-start things.
One more experiment and I think it'll be time to add this to the web site.
A Pair of Crumpets
Start this the evening before you want the crumpets for breakfast.
Oil 2 glass yogurt cups with vegetable oil.
In a 1-cup pyrex measuring cup, heat 1/4 cup milk to body temperature.
Add a pinch of yeast and let it dissolve.
Add about 1/4 tsp vegetable oil and a very small pinch of salt.
Mix in 1/4 regular white flour until all the lumps are gone and the batter is smooth.
Pour the batter in equal portions into the two yogurt cups, cap them, and put them in the yogurt incubator with the timer set to go all night.
In the morning, heat a cast-iron or other heavy griddle over a low heat. Oil it lightly with some vegetable oil on a paper towel -- it shouldn't be hot enough to make the oil smoke. Oil the inner surface of a couple of muffin/egg rings and place them on the griddle while it's heating.
Pour the contents of each dough-cup into one of the rings. You'll probably need a small plastic scraper to get it all out. Use the scraper to spread the dough out in the ring so it fills the whole thing, if it isn't quite liquid enough to do so on its own.
Let the crumpets bake on the griddle until the top surface is non-liquid. If the temperature of the griddle is right, the bottom will be just nicely browned. (It may help to use a spatula to loosen it from the griddle as soon as possible so you can shift it around on the griddle more easily.) You should be able to lift the rings off without any problem if you oiled them properly. Remove the rings then turn the crumpets. If you're doing other cooking at this point and if you're using a griddle that holds heat well, turn the heat off at this point and you can just ignore the crumpets until you're ready to eat.
Results This worked much better than the larger volume (and the mistake of using too much volume per crumpet) that I tried last time. The dough/batter was exactly the right amount for 2 crumpets and they cooked through without any rawness in the middle or scorching on the outside. There weren't as many bubbles in the upper surface as I'm used to from commercial crumpets, which seems to mean that the dough wasn't quite liquid enough, so adjusting the milk:flour ratio may be called for. Also, although the yeast worked enough to leaven the crumpets adequately, the ferment looked a little weak -- not the energetic working that I got last time. Since the yogurt maker supplies a fixed temperature, this may have to do with the much longer time it fermented last time, but I think a small pinch of sugar may help kick-start things.
One more experiment and I think it'll be time to add this to the web site.
