Tag Archives: griddle

Rumples…they are the best food

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muffin rings hanging on the hearth
first side started
ready to turn
second side baking
first side done
a plateful of crumpets
When my son was two, one day we asked him what he would like to eat. “Rumples”, he said, “they are the best food”. We asked what rumples were, all we got was “they have holes, they are the best food”. Eventually we realized he was asking for crumpets. I attempted crumpets this week using the griddle in conjunction with tin muffin rings. There are recipes for crumpets cooked in various ways in many historic cookbooks from our time period (1866) and before. Here is a description from the divine Mrs B. (Isabella Beeton, author of Beeton’s Book of Household Management…the Joy of Cooking of the 1860’s)
I am not sure Jacob would have thought my first attempt at crumpets produced the best food, but there you go. I think my batter may have been too thick, and maybe the muffin rings were too small in diameter and too tall to cook them properly. I think I may ask the blacksmith if he can make me iron ones which are shorter and larger in circumference for another go. Mrs. Beeton does call for iron rings, but we only had these ones, made by our tinsmith, on hand.

Crumpet Recipe

2 1/4 cups flour, sifted
3 tsp dry active yeast
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1 tsp sugar (n.b. not in Beeton…added to help the yeast)
1/3 cup warm water
1 tsp salt

Combine flour, yeast, milk and sugar. Beat for 3-4 minutes to develop the holes in the batter. Let sit covered in a warm place for 20 minutes to an hour until doubled. Stir the salt into the water, then stir both into the batter. Add more warm water if necessary to make a thick batter. Let rest in a warm place again for 20 minutes. Bake in rings on a hot griddle for 5-7 minutes per side.

How about a Singin’ Hinny for afternoon tea?

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As you can probably guess, I am a sucker for a strange name. This recipe caught my eye in one of my new favourite books, Cakes Regional and Traditional by Julie Duff. This book contains a lot of recipes for griddle cakes, something I need to expand my repertoire of for the Tenant Farm at work. She has done a lot of historical research, so it is often easy to tell if they date back far enough (1866) for my purposes. If I think they do, I can go into the historic cookbooks and search for the refeence.
This page from the periodical, Notes and Queries, shows that the name Singing Hinny existed in February, 1866. Gotta love Google books and having a husband who is a trained librarian and can navigate his way through!

Singin’ Hinny Recipe

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
3/8 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup currants or raisins

Sift dry ingredients together. Rub in butter. Stir in currants or raisins. Add milk and stir till just combined. Form into one large hinnie. Cook 7 minutes per side on griddle or until golden brown on each side.

I also made Sugar Biscuits this week with some time travellers, the overnight campers at the village who come for 5 nights at a time. Each morning pairs of them visit stations in the village for 1 1\2 hours to get a taste of what children their age (9-14) may have done in the 1860’s.