Thanks to Maria's comment
on my rant about Chorleywood process bread, I thought I would try my hand at making crumpets again (thanks Maria! ;-) ). I made crumpets once and they did not work, which put me off a bit. I used a Good Food online recipe I can't find now, and although they tasted nice, they had no holes in them (I feel that should be the title of a Gilbert and Sullivan song: What Use Is A Crumpet Without Any Holes). The batter seemed too thick (it might have been me, though). Anyway, I thought I would swap things about a bit and make pikelets instead, as I had a
Hugh F-W recipe and Hugh is my current culinary inamorato.
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| Never mind about that lobster. Get ringing Toni + Guy |
I have resisted Hugh fever for years and years as I thought he was a strange scruffy-haired person who ate the more depressing things you might find in a hedge and the parts of animals I try to pretend do not exist, I do not say that is morally right. Well, readers, I was quite wrong, Hugh is actually a strange scruffy-haired culinary hero, I am gradually collecting all his books and All His Recipes Work. No, seriously. Every single recipe I have tried has worked and been delicious, my confidence is growing and I am encouraged to try some of the more recherché ones perhaps involving rennet. And they are not expensive! Everything uses something from the veg box and the garden and things you have lying about in the cupboard (and all I have in my garden are perennial weeds and a few daffodils, so if I’ve got it growing, you might have too). Anyway now I have done my Hugh rave it is obviously only a matter of time before he appears in the News Of The World leaving Tesco with a bag full of bribe money and a 16-year-old lapdancer or something horrendous, but in the meantime I will make hay. So I thought if I cannot make Hugh’s pikelets work there is no hope for me especially as they contain both cream of tartar
and bicarb which presumably would fizz up a dry stone wall.
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| Mounds of pikelets! With holes! |
Pikelets! I have succeeded! It is a good day for me as I have also finished the yoke on my Shalom cardigan and it seems to be person-sized. And now I can celebrate my success with a buttery pikelet. (Do you have pikelets in other countries? I don’t quite know how to describe them if you don’t. They are like a flat crumpet. If you don’t have crumpets that doesn’t help. They are like a savoury pancake but with an unusual texture and holes in the top. You eat them hot with butter).
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| I know they don't look glamorous |
I cannot rest on my laurels, though, as I have to go and make cheese scones now to go with our soup for dinner. Partner has asked me three times in a faux-casual manner if I am making them soon, so I am presuming I will not be able to fob him off with a pikelet, which is fine as I will have them with butter on for breakfast. All the more pikelets for me!
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7 comments:
Hmm, a pikelet sort of looks like what we might call an English Muffin -- or even a crumpet. Wish I could taste yours, they look scrumptious.
Ooh, pikelets! Free-form crumpets by any other name. They look wonderful. And yes, Hugh Fairly-Wotsisface is brilliant, isn't he? I use his crumpet recipe too, and they are just great. I dream of the days (hopefully not too far in the future) when I have a working kitchen again, and I can make crumpets. Sigh. Or pikelets. Or any other yeasted batter bakery items.
Congrats with the Shalom yoke too - you *may* have exorcised the yarn demons...
Not glamorous? VERY glamorous - just maybe need greasing up with a huge slab of melting butter. I love your blog - it is completely brilliant. I usually lurk about feeling a bit bashful about commenting..but the pikelets have drawn me out.I feel inspired- did you have to use a griddle?
Aww thank you dichotomyof (fab name), no need to be bashful ;-). I just used a big frying pan. I had to do just a couple at a time, but they only take a few minutes to cook, so, no hardship ;-).
I have been eating pikelets, scones and have just put in some oatcakes and a rhubarb crumble. I will soon be the size of a house and that will ensure the Shalom does not fit. It is the curse of the yarn, getting me another way, eek.
Lol. Here in Texas I am very vague on the crumpet - I would have guessed that's what you have pictured. Have never heard of pikelets. Little pike fishes? All new to me. But congratulations!
To make things even more complicated, when I was growing up in the North we called all crumpets pikelets. I never realised there was a distinction. (Cambridge was a culture shock in many many ways).
Totally agree about Hugh - still scruffy, even after the haircut - I have just bought my first River Cottage cookbook (having watched the programmes)and am looking forward to making something!
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