How to Make Delicious Vegan Crumpets

Have you ever wondered how to make crumpets at home?

Are you aware that there is such a thing as a vegan crumpet?

Do you have the impression that crumpets are too involved, too complicated and not easy to make at home?

Or whether a quick and easy crumpet recipe actually exists?

Well, let me help you bust these myths.

If you are a crumpet lover, and you frequently buy packets of crumpet, without second thought you automatically pop them in the toaster to get that crisp edge, you fill the holes with lashings of butter and drizzle honey generously all over, you then haphazardly gobble them down for breakfast and wish you could make them at home.

Now is time for you to dig deeper so your dream will come true!

Making crumpets is quite similar to making pancakes. However, the similarity stops there.

Even though the traditional ingredients are mainly flour, yeast, milk or water and egg base, the crumpet batter is quite sticky and bubbly.

I was told by a keen foodie that the best crumpets should be full of holes, crisp, chewy and spongy.

Some people will go to great lengths developing fermentation mix for the crumpet batter, but this recipe doesn’t require that.

In fact, after a quick mix, it only takes 30 minutes standing time in a warm place for the unique character of the crumpet batter to develop. You’re ready to cook up these delicious treats in minutes.

Let me show you how to do this.

Once the batter has doubled in size and showing a lot of bubbles, it’s ready to start cooking on your kitchen stovetop. That’s right, there’s no baking required.

This recipe makes between 9 and 12 golden crumpets based on the size of the ring or mould you use.

Get your set of egg rings if you already have them in your kitchen drawer. Or check your pantry and look for metal pastry (or cookie) moulds.

You can use different shapes and sizes, but I will go for the size of my palm as a general rule.

I remember we used to get square crumpets from the store in the olden days, but somehow, we see mostly in round shape these days.

If you don’t have moulds and you still want to make crumpets, yes you can, the free-form crumpets will not have the typical height or big holes to allow the butter and honey permeate into the nooks, but I reckon that’ll spoil the fun. Don’t you?

Unlike pancakes, you could make more than one or two in the frying pan at a time. Depending on how many metal moulds can fit into your frying pan, you want to leave some room to manoeuvre.

And another thing: patience is a must in cooking crumpets, it needs a little more time to firm up the bottom so you don’t want to use high heat, hence timing is important.

Soon as you see the soft white sticky batter turns to a solid colour and the edge becomes a light brown colour, it’s time to use a pair of tongs to gently lift the rings or moulds, keep them on the side in the frying pan, leave them there for the next batch.

Flip the crumpets so you can add some colour on the other side too, but this time it’s much quicker to cook, about one minute will generally do the trick.

Oh, just another tip for you!

If I intend to serve the crumpets immediately, I may let the cooking go a touch further until they are nicely golden brown. If I make another batch for future treats, I’d leave them as lightly cooked, then when I pop them into my toaster a proper golden colour will ensue.

So, are you ready? Let’s make crumpets!!