Crumpets for afternoon tea

[Ishbel]

Great on a wet, cold winter's afternoon, freshly toasted and dripping with butter (no substitute will do!) and a pot of Earl Grey tea. 8)

The following amount makes about 14-18 crumpets


1lb plain flour, sifted
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp/1x7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
Half pint of warm milk
Half pint of pint warm water
vegetable oil
4 crumpet rings or 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 and pour into a large jug.
Heat a non-stick frying pan over a very low heat with a drop of oil. Wipe the pan with kitchen paper to remove excess oil. 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 plenty 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 while continuing to cook the remaining mixture.

When cooled, store in an airtight container. Toast before serving. Traditionally they are served with butter, but my family sometimes add jam to the top of the crumpets!

 

[Audeo]

Crumpets, McVities and Tea!

Thank you for your recipe, Ishbel! Pray tell, have you one for Crowdie Cream? I sure would love to get your take on that one!

 

[Ishbel]

Do you mean cream that has had crowdie cheese beaten into it to make a sort of sauce for puddings?

Crowdie is traditionally sold in a log shape, and the version I buy is rolled in toasted pin-head oatmeal. Scrumptious!

People don't realise what a rich assortment of cheeses we have in Scotland. This site has descriptions of some of them.

http://www.taste-of-scotland.com/cheese.html

 

[Konditor]

Crumpets were originally hard pancakes cooked on a griddle rather than the soft & spongy crumpets of Victorian times, made with yeast. The crumpet-makers of the Midlands & London developed the characteristic holes, by adding extra baking powder to the yeast dough. Following suit, I add 1 tsp of baking powder to my crumpet recipe. They're cooked in crumpet rings on a large heavy cast-iron skillet over a low flame.

Yesterday was the third consecutive Thursday on which I cooked bannocks for my lunch. Crowdie is a must-have accompaniment! I mix the simplest, crofter-style crowdie of all: imported orange Marmalade (recently I’ve been eating *Robertsons Limited Edition – okay, it’s made in Manchester, not Dundee!) stirred into a dish of cottage cheese. Although my bannocks (with sultanas) have been cooked in a cast-iron pan, next week I’ll prepare the traditional, slow-oven version of Selkirk Bannocks. Perhaps I can't wait until Thursday?

To make authentic crowdie cream: Oats are lightly browned in a pan that has been coated with a little melted butter, then removed from the stove to cool.

Heavy cream is whipped to soft peak. Honey & whiskey are added then the toasted oats are incorporated. To serve, the whipped-cream mixture is layered with berries in glasses. For garnish, some reserved toasted oats or nuts and a sprig of mint.

Over the years, I often have made many of the English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh bread classics -- including, crumpets, griddle scones, currant cakes (with Drambuie & rose-water), boxty, English muffins, pratie oaten, Yorkshire tea cakes, Aberffraw Cakes, Banbury cakes, flapjacks, Pithcaily bannock, Abernethy biscuits, petticoat tails, etc.

*Keiller Dundee Orange Marmalade sold in the white ceramic jar is perhaps the very best. Recommended to marmalade connoisseurs.

 

[Ishbel]

We call a griddle a girdle in Scotland, hence girdle scones! I have my Granny's - it must have been in continuous use for nearly a hundred years now as she got it new when she married very early in the 1900s.

What you refer to as a crowdie cream is in fact another Scots dish call cranachan, and I trust you add Scots Whisky, not Irish or Bourbon? 8)
Crowdie is a soft, simple cheese - no marmalade, jam or cream!

I'm afraid that Keiller's Dundee Marmalade has been overtaken in flavours and textures by companies like Tiptree of Essex and, though I don't wish to give any money to his endeavours, the Duchy of Cornwall's selection of marmalades (owned by the Prince of Wales and all money going to his charity, the Prince of Wales Trust). I make my own as soon as the Seville oranges start to appear in the shops and ensure that I make enough to keep us going for the whole year.


Goodness, I see the English County of Ess ex has been censored!

 

[mudbug]

Konditor, is there anything you DON'T know how to make? With every post of yours, I feel more and more inadequate!

 

[Konditor]

Yes, I agree that Tiptree have a wide range of flavors; but also Hartleys & MacKays of Scotland. (A specialty-foods shop in my city carries a superb range of these preserves.)

Certainly, crowdie is a fresh Scottish cheese -- specifically either a mixture of oatmeal with cold water or milk, hence any porridge; or pressed curds prepared with butter; that is why I qualified my spread as “crofter-style” – in which marmalade is combined with a soft curd cheese. Originally, crowdie was the name for a mixture of finely ground oatmeal and water (or buttermilk), stirred to a batter-like consistency, but left uncooked. This “crowdie cream” is now better known to some people as cranachan. So, obviously, the name is applicable to both preparations.

According to F. Marian McNeill's The Scots KItchen, the above-mentioned method with oatmeal and water is how the Lowland Scots refer to crowdie. (My paternal grandmother was a Lowlander and that's how she regarded the dish.)

Mrs. Murray, a friend of mine who operated a cooking school (and whose husband was an airline pilot from Scotland) gave me her recipe for crowdie cream:

Spread 1/3 cup quick-cooking rolled oats over a baking sheet and toast in 400* oven until the flakes are a rich golden brown; set aside to cool. Whip 8 fl. oz. heavy cream until it begins to thicken. Add 3 Tbsp powdered sugar and beat cream to soft peaks. Carefully stir in 1 fl. oz. dark rum, a tsp at a time, and then fold in the cooled, toasted oatmeal. Pile into chilled sherbet or parfait glasses.

The ne plus ultra selections of British commercial preserves are represented by the lines produced by Christopher Brooks Distinctive Foods & Elizabethan.

I trust you add Scots Whisky, not Irish or Bourbon?

I use Glayva Liqueur!

 

[Ishbel]

Interesting, I am a lowlander and any supermarket in Edinburgh that I go into has a soft cheese called crowdie - with absolutely nothing added - just cheese.

Hartley's are a bog-standard maker in the UK, cheaper than most - and therefore less fruit to sugar ratio.

I have my own copy of Marian MacNeill's book, but don't forget she wrote it in 1929 or so... things move on and change - I'm using terms presently used in Scotland!

My comments re whisky was because you typed whiskEy - Scots whisky has no 'e'....

 

[Audeo]

We call a griddle a girdle in Scotland, hence girdle scones! I have my Granny's - it must have been in continuous use for nearly a hundred years now as she got it new when she married very early in the 1900s.

What you refer to as a crowdie cream is in fact another Scots dish call cranachan, and I trust you add Scots Whisky, not Irish or Bourbon? 8)
Crowdie is a soft, simple cheese - no marmalade, jam or cream!

I'm afraid that Keiller's Dundee Marmalade has been overtaken in flavours and textures by companies like Tiptree of *** and, though I don't wish to give any money to his endeavours, the Duchy of Cornwall's selection of marmalades (owned by the Prince of Wales and all money going to his charity, the Prince of Wales Trust). I make my own as soon as the Seville oranges start to appear in the shops and ensure that I make enough to keep us going for the whole year.

Goodness, I see the English County of Ess ex has been censored!

Heavens, but I'm enjoying this thread!!! Crowdie Cheese is off the charts on the smooth, delicious scale! And Crowdie Cream is what my granny called Crahachan with more than a few poxes and gaelic words I haven't a clue how dastardly the consequences that were threatened if anyone in her family used any brew other than Foin Scots Whisky! Personally, I prefer Lagavulin, but Laphroaig is also lovely in this beautiful raspberry delight.

I'm certain that more than a few of my ancestors would roll over if I used anything other than homemade jams and marmalades for their progeny! And I know it was my grandmum's "evil eye" seen often in my childhood that was the greatest motivator for me learning how. I never doubt her ability to haunt to this day...

Ishbel, I also have some cooking treasures dating back to my great-grandmothers, including a couple of ancient girdles. Wonderful cookware still and likely always!

Gosh, this makes me hungry!