Old Fashioned Home Made English Crumpets For Tea Time Food

ENGLISH CRUMPETS

Steps:

• Whisk 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Combine water and milk in a separate bowl and quickly whisk the milk mixture into the dry ingredients until batter is thick and smooth. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until spongy, about 1 hour. Stir dough to reduce sponginess.
• Place a rack into the oven and preheat to 150 degrees F (65 degrees C).
• Spray a skillet and round metal open-top cookie cutters or crumpet molds with cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium-low heat, place the metal cutters or molds into the skillet, and let the molds heat up. Spoon batter into the molds, filling them about halfway. Let the crumpets cook until the bottoms are browned, the tops appear nearly dry, and popped bubbles appear on top, about 5 minutes.
• Use tongs to lift molds out of the pan; remove molds from the crumpets. Flip and return crumpets to skillet to cook the other sides until browned, 1 to 2 more minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. Keep cooked crumpets warm on rack in the preheated oven while you cook remaining crumpets.

OLD FASHIONED HOME-MADE ENGLISH CRUMPETS FOR TEA-TIME

Steps:

• Note - you will need 4 crumpet rings, or egg rings or 7.5cm (3in) plain pastry cutters, greased.
• Place the flour and salt into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and yeast making a well in the centre. Pour in the warm milk and water and mix to give quite a thick batter. Beat well until completely combined and cover with a tea towel or cling film.
• Leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour until it's a light, spongy texture. Stir well to knock out any air, add the bicarbonate of soda and pour into a large jug - mix well and allow to stand for a further 30 minutes.
• Heat a non-stick frying pan, or a greased griddle, over a very low heat with a drop of oil or butter. Wipe the pan with kitchen paper to remove excess oil/butter. Sit the greased crumpet rings in the pan and leave to heat up for a couple of minutes.
• Pour in enough mixture to fill the rings just over halfway up the sides. Leave to cook until lots of small holes appear on the surface and the batter has just dried out. This will take about 8-10 minutes.
• Remove the rings and turn over the crumpets to cook for a further minute or two on the other side. Sit the first batch of crumpets on a wire rack whilst continuing to cook the remaining crumpets.
• Serve the crumpets warm, generously buttered. If you are making crumpets in advance, then reheat them by toasting lightly on both sides before serving. (Prep time includes rising time for the yeast dough.).

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH CRUMPETS

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Warm the milk in a saucepan. Make sure that it is warm but not boiling. Otherwise, it will kill the yeast.
• Skim any film off of the top.
• Whisk together the warmed milk, flour , sugar, and yeast in a large bowl.
• Once combined, add half the water and beat into the batter.
• Continue to add more water until the batter is thick and smooth. Stop adding water once it reaches the consistency of thick cream.
• Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size and foaming. This should take about 1 hour but can take up to 2 hours (keep an eye on it).
• Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter.
• Heat a large heavy-duty non-stick skillet over medium to medium-high heat until hot but not smoking.
• Moisten a paper towel with a little oil (alternatively, use cooking spray) and carefully grease the base of the pan and crumpet (or pastry) rings measuring approximately 3 inches wide by 1/2 inch tall.
• Place 1 ring on the heated pan and pour in enough batter to fill just below the top of the ring, about 1/4 cup.
• Cook for 5 minutes, until there are many tiny holes on the surface and the crumpet is setting around the edges.
• Flip the crumpet over (in the ring) and cook until the crumpet is light brown and cooked through, about 3 minutes more.
• Adjust the temperature as needed. Repeat with the remaining batter, greasing the pan in between each batch.
• Rest the crumpets on a wire rack until cool.
• To reheat, place crumpets in a toaster or directly on the center rack in a 350 F oven for about 5 minutes before serving.
• Serve with lots of butter and jam .

ENGLISH CRUMPETS

Steps:

• Mix first 5 ingredients for about 5 minutes, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour.
• Add salt, mix again, rise again.
• Mix in baking soda and milk.
• Heat pan to medium low. Butter crumpet rings (can use any 3-4 inch rings such as empty tuna cans with top and bottom remover, or commercial egg rings) and pan. Pour in just enough batter to fill the bottom of the ring.
• Cook until brown on bottom and just set on top. There should be bubbles all over the top. Remove rings.
• Turn briefly to cook the other side.
• To serve, toast and spread with butter or jam.

ELEGANT SUGAR CUBES FOR TEA-TIME

Steps:

• Mix the confectioners sugar and water.
• Add 1 or 2 drops of food coloring to tint the frosting the color you desire. You can use red for roses, blue for forget-me-nots, green for leaves - or whatever colors or designs you want!).
• Scoop some of the icing into a decorating bag, fitted with the tip of your choice.
• Make tiny flowers and leaves on your sugar cubes, or create your own designs.

DAINTY EGG AND CHIVE TEA SANDWICHES FOR TEA-TIME

Steps:

• Place the eggs in a small pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and cook for 6 minutes. Drain and run the eggs under cold water until cool.
• Peel and then coarsely grate or crumble the eggs into a bowl. Mix with the salad cream, mayonnaise and chives and season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Cut off the bread crusts with a serrated knife - put them to one side for home-made breadcrumbs.
• Butter the bread and divide the egg mixture between 4 bread slices. Top with the remaining bread. Stack 2 sandwiches together and cut into 3 fingers, then serve.
• Cook's tips: Pierce the rounded end of each egg with a pin before cooking to help stop the shell from cracking.
• Cooling the eggs under cold water stops them from cooking further and prevents a dark ring forming around the yolk.
• For easy peeling, peel the eggs under cold running water over a colander to collect all the bits of shell. The water stops the shell from sticking to your fingers and the egg.