This is the crumpet recipe released by Warburtons, the UK’s biggest commercial crumpet maker. They’re an absolute dead ringer for store bought – except far better – with the signature holes, distinct “spongey” texture, perfect for toasting. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to make a crumpet, this is going to blow your mind! And it’s easy!
Crumpet recipe
Warburtons is the UK’s biggest and most popular commercial crumpet producer. They make over 700 million of them a year!
To cheer up the UK public during lockdown, they shared their secret crumpet recipe for people to make at home. Though I doubt it’s the precise commercial batter recipe (they probably adapted it for the home cook), the end result is EXACTY like store bought crumpets.
After many, many, MANY failed crumpet attempts over the years (even from notable chefs!), I am still shaking my head at how astonishingly perfect these crumpets are – and how easy they are to make!
What are crumpets?
Hailing from England, they’re like a cross between an English muffin and pancakes. Their distinguishing feature is the surface that’s riddled with holes which allows butter to permeate through from top to bottom. The surface has a unique almost “spongey” texture, but it’s very fluffy inside, just like bread!
What goes in crumpets
Here’s what you need to make crumpets. I always knew yeast was in the batter. The addition of baking powder was the key that made all the difference – from crumpet making fails to crumpet making success!
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Yeast – use instant / rapid rise yeast or active dry yeast (sometimes just labelled “yeast”). Both work just fine.
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Fresh yeast? Haven’t tried with fresh yeast but see no reason why it wouldn’t work using the standard conversion of 7.75g / 0.275 ounces fresh yeast per 1 teaspoon of dry yeast. Crumble into warm water with sugar and follow above directions for active dry yeast.
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Flour – just normal plain / all purpose flour. Not self raising flour, not wholemeal flour.
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Gluten free – unfortunately doesn’t work with gluten free flour. We tried, and it was a dismal failure!
How to make crumpets
Here’s how to make crumpets in 3 easy steps:
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Mix water, flour and salt to form a sticky but stirrable batter. Then mix in yeast dissolved in a bit of water, baking powder and sugar to form a smooth batter;
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Leave in a warm place for 30 minutes until the surface gets foamy; then
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Ladle into rings and cook on the stove until bubbles pop on the surface and the top is cooked.
It is quite straightforward, but because homemade crumpets is a bit of a unique recipe, I’m going to add a bit more information about each step in the proceeding sections. If you’re not interested, jump to the recipe! (Or video – or Dozer 😂)
The crumpet batter
The crumpet batter is literally a dump-and-mix job, though you do need to mix well for a couple of minutes by hand (or half that time using a handheld mixer) which I assume is to get good gluten formation to get that signature chew for any type of yeast bread, as opposed to being “cakey”.
Then once mixed, you simply put it in a warm place so it gets nice and foamy. This is the equivalent of dough rising so the crumpets rise when they’re cooking.
The crumpet batter won’t increase in volume very much – just around 10 / 15%.
Crumpet rings
Crumpet rings are a “thing”. They are around 9 cm / 3.5″ wide and about 2.5cm / 1″ tall. The ones I have are non stick, but they come in silver too.
But honestly, anything metal and round will do the trick – egg rings, biscuit cutters, scone cutters, even cleaned large tuna cans. Actually, it doesn’t even have to be round! Star shaped crumpets, anyone??
Cooking crumpets
Now, I’m not going to lie to you – you probably won’t nail the first one. It does take practice – but no more than when you first started out perfecting the art of golden fluffy pancakes or pikelets!
The secret to cooking crumpets perfectly is to start them off on a high heat to get those bubbles activated, then turn the stove down so the crumpet cooks through without burning the base. The cooking technique is one change I made to the original Warburtons recipe – they say to cook on medium high the whole time = scorched base.
Though store bought crumpets don’t have colour on the holey side, I like to flip to get a blush of colour on it and cook any residual raw batter.
And here’s a close up of the inside of the crumpets with the signature vertical “tunnels” from the holes!
Even better the next day!!
An essential step with crumpets is to cool them completely, otherwise they are kind of moist and “doughy” inside.
In fact, if you want an absolute dead ringer for store bought crumpets, they are best made the day before, or the day before! They keep for days in the fridge – I’ve kept them for 5 days and once toasted, they are perfect.
Can you freezer homemade crumpets?
They freezer perfectly too. Thaw or even microwave thaw, then toast as usual!
How to eat a crumpet
I realise that writing about how to eat crumpets may induce eye rolling from Crumpet-Eating-Experts. But bear with me – not everyone has been eating crumpets all their life!
Toasting is essential to make the golden base crispy. Then slather with butter (what do you think all those holes are for?? So the crumpet gets soaked with butter, from top to bottom!) then spread of choice.
What to put on crumpets
As far as what to put on crumpets (other than the mandatory butter) – honey is by far the top choice (think – hole seepage). My personal second choice is Vegemite (it’s an Aussie thing 🇦🇺), followed by jam. Other spreads like Nutella and peanut butter go great too – whatever you put on toast, you can put on crumpets!
Though if you want the ultimate crumpet experience, don’t go past butter and honey. That moment when you bite into the crumpet and salty melted butter and sweet molten honey squirts into your mouth…
Arrrgh … I’m torturing myself at the thought. I’m off to toast another crumpet for morning tea! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Crumpet recipe
Ingredients
- 150g (1 cup) white flour , plain / all purpose
- 200ml (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) warm water , tap water (200g) (Note 1)
- 1/2 tsp salt , cooking/kosher salt (1/4 tsp table salt)
- 1/2 tsp white sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
Yeast Mixture
- 1 tsp yeast , instant/rapid rise OR dry active yeast (Note 2)
- 1 tbsp warm water (just tap water)
Cooking:
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter , melted (or vegetable oil)
Instructions
Crumpet Batter:
- Place flour, water and salt in a bowl and whisk for 2 minutes (electric beater 1 minute on speed 5).
- Yeast Mixture - Dissolve Yeast into 1 tbsp warm water in a small bowl.
- Add Yeast Mixture, sugar and baking powder into bowl, then whisk for 30 seconds (or 15 sec speed 5).
- Cover with cling wrap or plate, then place in a very warm place for 15 to 30 minutes until the surface gets nice and foamy. It will only increase in volume by ~10 - 15%.
Cooking Crumpets:
- Grease 2 or 3 rings with butter (approx 9 cm / 3.5" wide, though any ring or metal shaper will do, Note 3) (TIP: Non stick rings - brush with melted butter. Everything else - smear with butter)
- Brush non stick skillet lightly with melted butter then place rings in the skillet.
- Turn stove on medium high (medium for strong stoves) and bring to heat (Note 4 for "sizzle test").
- Pour 1/4 cup batter into the rings (65ml), about 1cm / 2/5" deep (will rise ~60%).
- Cook for 1 1/2 minutes - bubbles should start appearing on the surface (but not popping yet).
- Turn heat down to medium, cook for 1 minute - some bubbles should pop around the edges.
- Turn heat down to medium low, cook for a further 2 1/2 to 4 minutes, until the surface is "set" and it's clear there will be no more bubbles popping! (At this stage you can help the final bubbles pop with a skewer!)
- Remove rings (you might need to run knife around to loosen).
- Then flip and cook the other side for 20 to 30 seconds for a blush of colour.
- Transfer to write rack (golden side down) and fully cool.
- Can be eaten once cool, but it's even better the next day (Note 5).
How to eat crumpets:
- Toast in a toaster until the base is crispy.
- Slather generously with butter, then spread of choice (honey is perfection) and devour immediately!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
And every once in a while, his patience pays off and food I’m shooting falls to the ground….
Thanks very much for this recipe. I recently tried a few recipes I found online but this was by far the most successful. And vegan if using vegetable oil instead of butter for cooking. Clear instructions.
This recipe is great and has worked for me many times.
Here is a challenge: I’m trying to make crumpets with sourdough discard using this method but a different recipe. So far it has been a fail – any thoughts?
Perfection!!!
Such a cosy winter delight.
Controversially enjoyed with butter and Vegemite in my household! A cinch to veganise.
finally got my crumpet rings, only took me what, oh 3 years to buy some. Can’t wait to make them now, the challenge will be to find a warm spot in my fridge of a house. 🙂
Love this recipe, the only issue I had was the room was not hot enough to rise the batter, soon solved, perfect crumpets. Very moorish. I made slightly smaller ones and ate 4 straight off (just to test them)
Wow, these are really good. The directions are great. I followed them exactly and they turned out mostly well. Moderating the heat was difficult. It was hard to balance the heat with the slight smoke from the butter and the doneness. The crumpets had a faint butter smoky taste from the bottom (hubby didn’t notice so I might be over critical). Has anyone experimented with oil or oil/butter to increase the smoke point? I could have let them cook a bit more but was afraid to make the bottom too dark.
I used oil today but I won’t do it again. I had massive problems getting the crumpets out of the non stick rings. I oiled them so well too. Perhaps the issue would not have arisen had I used butter as Nagi does.
First attempt and not too shabby….will toast a couple more tomorrow and see how they go. Look pretty good and taste delicious…even if I say so myself! 😀
We just made (and ate 🙂 the yummiest crumpets ever. We couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Will make a new batch now for breakfast tomorrow. Thank you , Nagi!
This is hands down the BEST crumpet recipe. It is no fail! I even made sourdough crumpets with this recipe by usng some of my discard. Yummo!
May I ask how much of the sourdough discard did you use? I haven’t made sourdough in quite a while and would like to do it again…
For what it’s worth, I made this recipe with gluten-free flour, I just swapped some of the liquid for an egg. That’s probably not traditional, but the egg really helps it hold up without getting too crumbly. This was great! Easy and delicious.
Hi Tamar, are you able to specify how much liquid you swapped for an egg? I tried a GF pizza crust with a 1:1 ratio and it was an epic fail 😂
Oh my gosh, I’m making these tonight while my kids are sleeping as tomorrow is a public holiday here in Switzerland, but doubling because I reckon half will be gone tonight before the kids even wake up in the morning!! 😉
OMG…. These are amazing and so much better than store bought! Can’t stop eating them. Thanks again for another delicious recipe, you’re the best
I’ve tried different recipes and like yours the best. But lately I am having trouble with how thick or thin the batter should be. The last few tries the interior is doughy even though I cook them on a low heat. Help please.
Nagi, do you have a link to the crumpet rings you use?
Thank you for sharing this great crumpet recipe, I was in the States during lockdown so I wasn’t aware Warburtons had shared it.
Thanks to them too – if you’re going to buy sliced bread, in the uk their Seeded Batch is delicious.
I have been using this recipe for a year or so now and make 6 or 7 X the recipe each time, then freeze them. They freeze well and cook up deliciously in the toaster. I’ve even made these for gifts…I am obsessed with making them I find it very soothing watching the bubbles form and pop.
I love them with honey or just loaded with just butter. They taste so much better than store bought which I would never have just butter on.
I LOVEEEEE THESE
I add some jam and butter to mine and when i tell you these are to die for
This is my go to crumpet recipe! So easy to make and always comes out excellent. Thank you Nagi!
Hi Nagi
Judy found your crumpet recipe. I made a batch but it didn’t have the wow factor with holes on top.
I am going to try your recipe after my current batch is finished . Can’t wait to cook out your recipe
Thanks for posting
These are great, I think they are better a day or two later, toasted and eaten. Much better than those from the shop