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Vivi makes it easy
Breakfast like in England: Original British crumpets with syrup and fruit
© grinchh / Adobe Stock
Would you like something unusual for breakfast? Columnist Vivi shares her favorite English breakfast recipe for light and fluffy crumpets.
At English breakfast you just think about it at first salty bacon, floury baked beans, breakfast sausage dripping with fat and soggy toast with a fried egg. That’s how I felt when I traveled to “the island” for the first time. I prepared myself for not a particularly varied breakfast selection and became quick disabused. Just as we Germans don’t only eat brown bread and cheese for breakfast, the Brits also have other things to offer that are definitely worth trying.
I’m not talking about cereals with milk or other nonsense, but about tasty and special ones fluffy crumpets. Many have never heard of it. You should definitely change that, because… small grilled breads are a wonderful change from classic ones Pancakes and croissants for breakfast took my heart by storm.
Crumpets are small, round, pancake-like pieces of doughwhich comes from a light sweet yeast dough made in the pan. Crumpets are also popular outside of Great Britain Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. They resemble a flat bun in terms of shape and size, but taste more like a particularly fluffy pancake – and are you hungry yet?
Original British Crumpets: The best recipe
Ingredients
For the crumpets
- 400 ml whole milk
- 100 ml water
- 30g fresh yeast
- 10g powdered sugar
- 300g flour
- 1 pinch of salt
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- Butter or oil for baking
Additionally: 4 crumpet rings or fried egg molds
For the topping
- fresh fruit (e.g. berries, apple slices, banana pieces, pear slices)
- Maple syrup, honey or jam
- powdered sugar
preparation
- Heat milk and water to lukewarm in a small saucepan. Then add yeast and powdered sugar and let the yeast dissolve in it. Pour everything into a mixing bowl.
- Then add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix into a smooth dough using the mixing attachment of your hand mixer. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise at room temperature for about 60 minutes. Once the dough produces bubbles, it is perfect.
- Now put some butter or oil in a large pan and heat it up. Then grease the crumpet rings or fried egg molds (depending on what you have at home) and place them in the pan. Fill the rings with about four tablespoons of the crumpet dough so that they are about a centimeter deep with dough. Bake the crumpets over low heat for about three minutes, until the bubbles on the surface begin to dry out.
- Then you remove the crumpet rings and turn the individual crumpets. Bake the crumpets for another two to three minutes until golden brown and then garnish with syrup, honey or jam and fresh fruit. Happy Breakfast!
The crumpets can also be pre-baked and then baked fresh in the toaster the next day. In England they are preferably eaten with jam or warm with melted butter.
Vivi’s top tip
Now you know how to bake delicious crumpets. But do you know what makes them taste even better? The magic word is: caramelized apple slices. They are simply a poem, especially now in the cold season. Simply peel an apple of your choice, remove the core and cut it into thin wedges. Now put some butter in a pan, let it melt and add about two tablespoons of honey or maple syrup. Finally, add the apple slices and let them caramelize slightly. You can then optionally refine the apple slices with a little cinnamon.