Title: English Crumpets
Yield: 1 Batch

Ingredients

1 lb plain flour
1 pt milk
1/2 oz fresh yeast
1 ts salt
1 pn sodium bicarbonate (large)
4 tb warm water (about)

TO GREASE GRIDDLE

1 suet or lard

Instructions

Warm the flour in a bowl in the late warming part of the stove, or stand it in a rack above the cooker. Heat the milk to body temperature (a clinical thermometer can be used if you don't have a kitchen one), then fork up the yeast with 3 tbs of the milk. It will soon cream and swell into frothiness. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in both the yeast mixture and the rest of the warm milk. beat for a good 5 minutes (an electric beater can be used, 3 minutes will be enough). Cover the bowl and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour.

Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the warm water, add it to the mixture, beating it in thoroughly, then leave it to rise for another hour. Grease the griddle with lard or suet, and grease the crumpet rings (rings about 4" diameter, 1/2" high, Tala make them, but they're not essential). Place the rings on the griddle and heat it when the dough is ready. Pour spoonfuls of mixture to half fill the rings, and leave for a few moments to cook. Turn them over when the top part loses its liquid appearance, and finish the cooking. Ease off the rings, and start again with some more dough.