What could be better on a cold wet January afternoon than toasted crumpets dripping with butter? ‘Easy Homemade Pikelets’ straight from the griddle with plenty of butter top crumpets any time!!

Packets of crumpets can be bought in any supermarket, though if you are a label reader like me you will find a very lengthy list of ingredients. Gone are the days when, to quote from the ‘The Baker’s ABC ed John Kirkland 1927’, ‘They are made from flour, water, yeast and salt only’.

Crumpets seem to have always been the province of professional bakers rather than being produced at home. Dorothy Hartley in ‘Food in England’ 1954, says ‘muffins and crumpets are usually obtained from the bakehouse’. Up to the early twentieth century they were often bought from street vendors who bought them from bakeries to resell.

Henry Mayhew ‘London Labour and The London Poor’ 1851, says ‘I did not hear of any street seller who made the muffins and crumpets he vended… they are bought off the bakers…’ Both muffins and crumpets were sold by the muffin-man of nursery rhyme fame.

Elizabeth David could remember the muffin-man ringing his bell on Primrose Hill in London when she lived there in the 1930s.

I have tried making crumpets but I think it takes a lot of practice to get them right. To quote Robert Wells, ‘Bread and Biscuit Baker’s Assistant 4th edition 1929 –

Nothing but careful practice and particular attention to the whys and wherefores of both hot plate and batter will make a good muffin or crumpet maker’.

Homemade Pikelets

Pikelets however seem to have been made at home and you can find many recipes for them in old cookery books. They tend to be made of a richer batter than crumpets using eggs and milk and are cooked freeform, not in rings like crumpets, making them both easier and quicker to cook.

I based my recipe for pikelets on one that I found in an old cookery book ‘The Complete Illustrated Cookery Over Two Thousand Recipes and Hints on’ by Mrs. Stanley-Wrench M.C.A 1935.

They are quickly made, taking 6-8 minutes to cook on the griddle, compared to 12-15 minutes to cook the same batch of crumpets. I used both an old-fashioned cast iron griddle and my electric crêpe maker to cook them. The electric crêpe maker was much easier as the temperature is thermostatically controlled but with practice the cast iron griddle or even a heavy frying pan are quite satisfactory.

The batter takes very little time to make but as it is a yeasted batter it has to prove. In a very warm place, 25°C or so, it will only take an hour. The time taken depends on the temperature. If you want pikelets for breakfast it will prove overnight in the refrigerator, so proving time can be anything from 1-12 hours.

Easy Homemade Pikelets

Recipe by Scones Plus More

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: SnacksDifficulty: Easy

Servings

Adjust servings

+

–

24

pikelets

Cooking time

6

minutes

Proving time

1-12

hours

Ingredients

• 8 ounces / 225 grams plain white flour

• 8 ounces / 225 grams strong white bread flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 ounce fresh yeast or ½ ounce of easy bake yeast (2 sachets)

• 1 teaspoon caster sugar

• 1 pint tepid milk

• 3 large eggs beaten

Directions

• Sift the flours and salt into a mixing bowl.
• If using fresh yeast cream it with the sugar until liquid. If using easy bake yeast stir it into the flour with the sugar.
• If using fresh yeast add the milk to the creamed yeast and stir together and then stir in the beaten eggs. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the liquid. If using easy bake yeast add the milk to the flour, sugar and yeast mixture and stir together. Then stir in the beaten eggs.
• Whisk together until you have a smooth batter.
• Leave to prove until the batter is bubbling. The time this will take depends on the temperature – as little as 1 hour in a warm place and up to 12 hours in the refrigerator.
• When the batter is ready heat the griddle and lightly grease it. I kept my cast iron griddle on a medium gas flame and my crêpe maker on maximum.
• Now ladle your batter onto the griddle to form small pancakes – they should spread to be about 4 inches in diameter. Both my griddle and crêpe maker had room for 4 pikelets.
• Cook until the surfaces of the pikelets are covered in small holes and no longer look wet (about 3-4 minutes). Then flip them over to brown the top side (about 3-4 minutes). The bottom of the pikelet should be golden brown – if it is a dark brown lower the heat on the griddle – if it is pale in colour increase the heat.
• Remove from the griddle and keep hot, wrapped in a tea towel on a hot plate while you finish cooking the rest of the batter.

Serving Easy Homemade Pikelets

Serve lavishly spread with butter and any other spread that takes your fancy. I like honey, my granddaughter chocolate spread and my daughter my homemade marmalade.

Any leftovers can be toasted and buttered the next day. They will keep up to three days in a cool place or can be successfully frozen and toasted straight from the freezer.

Fresh Yeast vs Dried Yeast

I have recently been using fresh yeast for my yeasted bakes and find I prefer it to dried yeast or easy bake yeast, although I have successfully made batches of pikelets with both.

Fresh yeast is easily obtainable online although you have to buy 500 grams usually. You can however freeze it very successfully. I buy a 500 gram block and cut it up into smaller blocks to freeze what I cannot use immediately.

Until next time…

Happy baking!

Tanya