Crumpets with crunchy peanut butter

May 01, 2012

Bite sized butter crumpets piled high with crunchy peanut butter
perfect with a cup of tea
With the weather being a bit wet and windy I had a super craving for buttery crumpets with crunchy peanut butter all washed down with a lovely cup of tea.. but there were none in my house. So out came the mixing bowl and griddle and on went the crumpets!
This recipe makes perfect little crumpets, or the original round type.. though I think you'll agree these little hearts and stars are very sweet!

Recipe:

For the crumpets:

350ml warm milk
350g plain flour
7g fast action dried yeast, or one small packet
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp caster sugar
150-200ml warm water
spray oil

For the peanut butter:

180g roasted peanuts, I ended up using salted on but gave them a wash to take off the excess salt
2/3tbsp peanut or ground nut oil
25g butter
2/3 tsp honey
salt, if you're not using salted peanuts!

To make the crumpets you'll need a large flat pan, like a crepe pan or a large frying pan, non stick is best. In a mixing bowl that is a lot larger than you think you night need, the mixture expands, stir together all of your dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre of the floury mixture and pour in your water and milk, using a electric hand whisk, beat the mixture together until you have a very thick pancake type batter, like American pancakes. Add more or less water to make sure you get the correct consistency.

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm for the yeast to wake up and make bubbles in the batter. Again, not having a traditional airing cupboard I put mine into a cold oven and turned it on to 50c, by the time 15 mins were up the oven had come up to temp but the bowl had not been in 50c the whole time so it was just right.

The mixture should look bubbly and foamy when the yeast has done its work and smell a bit beer-y. Whilst the mixture is bubbling I made my crumpet topping, this time I fancied peanut butter but a dollop of strawberry jam is just as nice and you can find the recipe for jam here http://bit.ly/JshBKl.

Into a food processor, pop your (washed) peanuts, honey, half the oil and the butter, blitz. This won't be a paste like bought peanut butter, unless you have a very serious food processor. I usually end up with more of a peanut salsa, the butter make the mixture harden a little i the fridge and become more spreadable. Add more of your oil if the nut mix is very 'bitty' and blend until you have a texture you are happy with. I blend mine until it resembles a sticky cous cous, you can always keep a handful or nuts back and throw them in at the end to make a chunkier texture.

To cook your crumpets, you will need some kind of crumpet rings. You can buy special rings but I just used metal cookie cutters. Place the cutter or rings in the pan so they have time to warm, you want a hot but steady heat under the pan, I suggest turning it up really high for 5 mins then down a little until it's not quite so fierce but there is an even hot temperature across the pan.
Spray the inside of the rings and the base of the pan with oil then drop a spoon full of your foamy mixture into to the mould, it should melt and level. You want to drop enough mixture into the rings so that its about 1 cm thick, it will puff right up and need to be thin enough to cook before the bottoms burn.

The crumpets with rise and bubbles will appear across the surface, when the tops are holey and dry lift off the rings and flip the crumpets to brown the tops. The tops should just be lightly toasted before being taken off the heat.

You can either eat them straight form the pan or pile them up until they are all cooks then pop them in the toasted or under the grill of a few mins to warm them up before piling with butter and your favourite topping! 



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