How To Make Crumpets (Easy Recipe + Video)
This Easy Crumpet Recipe helps you to make soft, golden, and bubbly crumpets that come together in one bowl using 6 ingredients. Make crumpets from scratch to serve warm with lashings of butter and your choice of toppings such as honey, jam, vegemite, and more!
🍯 Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Easy to make at home.
- Made using 6 staple ingredients.
- Soft, bubbly with a crispy base & edges.
- Make ahead of time.
- Freezer-friendly.
Crumpets originate from the United Kingdom. They’re small round griddle cakes made from an easy batter of flour, yeast, baking soda, milk, salt, and sugar. Similar to pancakes, crumpets are cooked on a frying pan in crumpet rings.
They’re traditionally served for breakfast or afternoon tea, like these chocolate chip scones, warmed up in the toaster or fresh from the frying pan, and spread with lashings of butter and toppings such as jam and honey.
Making crumpets from scratch is easy. This recipe will show you how to make easy crumpets in the comfort of your own home.
🎥 Watch How To Make Crumpets
📖 Make Ahead
Make your crumpets the day before by preparing the batter and cooking the crumpets as per the recipe instructions. Then go ahead and store your homemade crumpets in an airtight container, in the fridge. Serve the next day by warming them back up in your toaster.
🍽 How To Eat And Serve Crumpets
There is also no need to slice your crumpets in half horizontally, unlike English muffins, you eat crumpets as they are, whole and delicious.
What are the best toppings for crumpets? Without a doubt, you need butter first. Then it’s your choice what you would like to spread on your crumpets. My favorites include:
- Honey.
- Strawberry or raspberry jam.
- Vegemite, try adding some avocado on top and thank me later 😉
- Lemon curd.
- Sunny side-up eggs or poached eggs.
- Sharp cheese, melted onto the crumpet under the grill/broil.
- Cold cut/luncheon meats such as bacon, smoked salmon, or sliced ham, chicken, turkey, and roast beef.
🍳 How To Make Without Crumpet Rings
If you would love to make this easy crumpet recipe but don’t have any crumpet rings, no problem! You likely have some metal egg rings hanging out in your kitchen drawer. If you’re nodding your head right now, great news! Metal egg rings will work great, especially if they’re non-stick. You can also use round metal cookie cutters, just the ones without scalloped edges.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re using egg rings or cookie cutters instead of crumpet rings:
1) Liberally grease your metal rings before cooking the crumpets, this will help your crumpets to easily release from the rings.
2) You need to use less crumpet batter than what this recipe calls for. This is because egg rings and cookie cutters are shorter in height compared to crumpet rings. You want to avoid the crumpet batter from spilling over the edge, what a disaster that would be!
If you’re interested in more easy breakfast and afternoon tea recipes, try these:
- Perfect Fluffy Pancakes.
- Lemon, Honey & Raspberry Blender Crepes.
- Raspberry White Chocolate Scones.
- Cheese and Chive Scones.
🔪 Equipment
What equipment do you need to make these easy crumpets? Let’s take a quick look:
- Crumpet rings – 3 or more. Or any metal round rings such as metal egg rings or metal cookie cutters. Even better if they’re non-stick rings.
- Mixing bowl – just one!
- Electric beaters – hand beaters or a stand mixer with the whisk attachment.
- Food thermometer – not crucial, you can also use your fingers!
- Tea towel – or cling film to cover the crumpet batter for rising.
- Large flat base frying pan – preferably non-stick.
- 1/4 cup measuring cup – the amount of batter used to make one crumpet in the crumpet rings.
- Spatula – to flip your crumpets.
- Tongs – to easily remove the crumpet rings, they’re hot!
📋 Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Here are the ingredients that you need to make these easy crumpets:
- Plain flour – is also known as all-purpose flour in the US.
- Instant yeast – use instant yeast or active dry yeast. Not fresh yeast.
- Granulated sugar – use either golden/raw or white granulated sugar. Can also be substituted with caster sugar.
- Baking soda – creates those iconic holes in crumpets. Make sure it hasn’t expired, find out how to it check here!
- Salt – use fine sea/table salt or Kosher salt.
- Milk – whole milk works best. For dairy-free, substitute it with almond milk or soy milk.
- Butter – to grease the crumpet rings and the frying pan. Substitute with dairy-free butter if desired.
🥣 Step By Step Instructions (with photos)
How to make crumpets from scratch in 8 easy steps!
A full and detailed recipe card is at the bottom of this post.
Step one: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, yeast, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Step two: Heat the milk in a small pot until warm to the touch, not scalding hot or bubbling. Use a thermometer for accuracy if desired.
Step three: Pour warmed milk into the flour mixture. Beat for 1 minute.
Step four: Cover the bowl and set it aside in a warm place for 45 minutes.
Step five: Fill each crumpet ring with a 1/4 cup of batter. Cook crumpets on medium-high for 1 minute and 40 seconds until bubbles form and pop around the edges.
Step six: Decrease the heat to low-medium and cook for a further 5-6 minutes until the tops look dry and set.
Step seven: Turn heat to low and gently remove the rings with tongs.
Step eight: Flip each crumpet with a spatula and cook on low for a further 20 seconds to seal the tops. Flip back over and remove them from the pan. Repeat the method with the remaining crumpet batter.
💭 Tips For Recipe Success
- Rings – no crumpet rings? Try using round metal egg rings or round metal cookie cutters. Preferably non-stick. You’ll need to reduce the batter in each ring as these options aren’t has high compared to crumpet rings.
- Yeast – use instant yeast or active dry yeast. Not fresh yeast.
- Baking soda – ensure it has not expired, otherwise, the crumpet holes will not develop. Read here how to check if your baking soda has not expired.
- Warm milk – test the milk with your fingers or a food thermometer, it needs to be warm to the touch, not scalding hot. Do not let it bubble or boil.
- Fry pan heat – over medium-high heat at first so bubbles can develop. The batter should gently sizzle, not burn or smoke. Not hot enough and the batter will not form air bubbles. Too hot and the batter will burn and smoke will appear. Too cold and the batter will not cook.
- Tongs – helpful to grab onto the side of the rings to release and remove them from the crumpets.
- Gluten-free – try making gluten-free crumpets using plain all purpose gluten-free flour. This recipe has not been tested gluten-free.
- Dairy-free – substitute the milk for almond milk or soy milk. Replace the butter with dairy-free cooking butter.
⏲️ Storage Instructions
Store cooked crumpets by cooling them down first. Then place the crumpets in an airtight container, refrigerated, for 2-3 days. Best consumed fresh!
Freeze cooked crumpets by cooling them down first. Then place the crumpets in freezer bags with one-two crumpets in each bag or a freezer-friendly container. Freeze for up to 2 months.
Defrost crumpets in the fridge overnight or for several hours at room temperature until they’re soft. To serve, pop them into the toaster until warmed through and crispy on the base.
💬 Recipe FAQ’s
Yes! Try using metal egg rings or metal round cookie cutters. Non-stick works best. Keep in mind you must use a smaller amount of crumpet batter as the egg/cookie rings aren’t as high compared to the crumpet rings.
Absolutely. I recommend making crumpets the day before eating them. Although they’re delicious freshly cooked, I find them even better once they’ve sat overnight and heated up in the toaster the next day.
Give it a go! Try making gluten-free crumpets using plain all purpose gluten-free flour.
Sure! You can heat already cooked crumpets back up in an air fryer until they’re warmed through and slightly crispy on the base and the edges. However, I don’t recommend cooking the raw batter into crumpets in an air fryer.
Yes. Freeze cooked crumpets by cooling them down first. Then place the crumpets in freezer bags with one-two crumpets in each bag or a freezer-friendly container. Freeze for up to 2 months.
🥄 Related Recipes
If you enjoy this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐️ star rating and a comment review below. I love to hear what you think and it’s much appreciated. Thank you! Your email address will not be published. Sam x
How To Make Crumpets (Easy Recipe + Video)
Equipment
- 3 crumpet rings non-stick, *see note one for substitute
- Mixing Bowl
- Electric beaters
- frying pan
- Spatula & Tongs
- 1/4 measuring cup
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (225g) plain all purpose flour, scoop & leveled
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1 tsp golden or white granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine sea/table salt, or Kosher salt
- 350 ml whole milk
- Unsalted or salted butter, to grease and fry
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add flour, yeast, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
- In a small pot, pour in the milk. Place over low-medium heat until it’s warm to the touch, not scalding hot, do not let it boil. If you have a thermometer, the milk should be at 55ºC/130ºF.
- Pour the warm milk into the dry flour mixture. Using electric beaters, beat on medium speed for 1 minute, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Cover the bowl with a tea towel or cling film and set aside in a warm place for 45 minutes. It won’t double in size. Bubbles will begin to form on top and throughout the batter.
- Liberally grease 2-3 crumpet rings with butter. Set aside.
- Add one heaping teaspoon of butter to a large non-stick fry pan. Place over medium-high heat and spread the melting butter over the base.
- Once the pan feels hot, place the crumpet rings onto the base of the pan with the thick part of the rim touching the pan. TIP: see note five.
- Scoop 1/4 cup of batter and pour into each ring, ensuring the batter has leveled out in the rings, not lopsided, use the back of a spoon to spread it out evenly.
- Cook crumpets on high-medium heat for 1 minute and 40 seconds until bubbles form and pop around the edges.
- Turn heat down to low-medium and cook for a further 5-6 minutes until the tops look dry and set (refer to in-post images for a visual). The center will look wobbly but the surface will be dry.
- Turn heat to low and gently remove the rings with tongs and set them aside.
- Flip each crumpet with a spatula and cook on low heat for a further 20 seconds to seal the tops.
- Flip them back over and remove them from the pan and onto a plate or board.
- Repeat the above method with the remaining batter. I cooked them in batches of 3, this recipe makes 9 crumpets.
- Serve crumpets warm from the pan with your choice of toppings. Enjoy!
- Or serve the next day by cooling them down completely and storing them in an airtight container, refrigerated, for 2-3 days.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If you enjoy this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐️ star rating and a comment review below. I love to hear what you think and it’s much appreciated. Thank you! Your email address will not be published. Sam x