I’ve been making whole wheat crumpets for a few years now based on this Paul Hollywood crumpet recipe converted to using all home-milled wheat flour, half hard red wheat, half soft white wheat. I have been happy with these crumpets, particularly after I realized that I needed to substantially increase the water used to account for the whole grain and especially when I follow my own advice not to fill the crumpet rings too full (that last is a real struggle for me as I want a tall crumpet and frequently overfill my rings). And yet, they still verged on gummy.
Enter the Serious Eats 100% whole wheat sandwich bread recipe published recently. I adore this recipe. The end result is tender and tasty and everything you could hope for in a whole wheat sandwich loaf. One secret to it is the 2.5 hour autolyse, in which the bulk of the liquid is mixed with the flour and left to sit. I have long known that whole grain flour takes longer to absorb liquid, but I didn’t understand that this absorption time would also inspire gluten formation, which is then later developed by kneading (or using the food process in the Serious Eats recipe). A lightbulb went on for me and I wondered if my crumpet recipe might be improved by an autolyse. This required pretty radically changing the method in the first part of the recipe. I use instant yeast, which negates the need for dissolving or using warm liquid, which gives me the flexibility I need for doing an autolyse. I follow Stella Parks’ technique in the bread recipe and added all but 2 TBSP of the liquid to my flour so that I would have some liquid to help when I mixed in the instant yeast. I was definitely worried that my mixing technique would fail but it worked beautifully. The only change I made to the timing was to give the mixture and additional 20 minutes or so to rise. After 80 minutes, my dough had indeed risen fully and begun to fall, just as Mr Hollywood says in his recipe.
After the autolyse and first rise, I followed the recipe that I’d modified earlier. I had thought that perhaps with the autolyse I wouldn’t need to use quite so much extra water but I used it all and it definitely needed it.
I did the long, slow preheat of my Baking Steel griddle and then cooked the crumpets at just above medium. This batter was definitely more bubbly and active than any other I’ve ever made and the interiors were not gummy. Though I know it’s sacrilege to split a crumpet (unlike an English muffin), I do it anyway. These ones fork-split easily, unlike the crumpets from previous batches. I plan on repeating this recipe very soon making sure to add even less batter to each ring (one recipe I consulted suggested add a scant 2 TBSP only). Glad I made that batch of lemon curd....
INGREDIENTS
6 oz (175g) soft wheat berries or whole wheat pastry flour
6 oz (175g) hard wheat berries or whole wheat bread flour
12 fl oz milk. Use 10 oz at first and hold 2 oz back for after the autolyse
14g instant yeast (or two packets or 4 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp sugar
10 oz warm water (Hollywood recipe calls for 5-7 oz)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Oil for the crumpet rings and griddle
DIRECTIONS
Enter the Serious Eats 100% whole wheat sandwich bread recipe published recently. I adore this recipe. The end result is tender and tasty and everything you could hope for in a whole wheat sandwich loaf. One secret to it is the 2.5 hour autolyse, in which the bulk of the liquid is mixed with the flour and left to sit. I have long known that whole grain flour takes longer to absorb liquid, but I didn’t understand that this absorption time would also inspire gluten formation, which is then later developed by kneading (or using the food process in the Serious Eats recipe). A lightbulb went on for me and I wondered if my crumpet recipe might be improved by an autolyse. This required pretty radically changing the method in the first part of the recipe. I use instant yeast, which negates the need for dissolving or using warm liquid, which gives me the flexibility I need for doing an autolyse. I follow Stella Parks’ technique in the bread recipe and added all but 2 TBSP of the liquid to my flour so that I would have some liquid to help when I mixed in the instant yeast. I was definitely worried that my mixing technique would fail but it worked beautifully. The only change I made to the timing was to give the mixture and additional 20 minutes or so to rise. After 80 minutes, my dough had indeed risen fully and begun to fall, just as Mr Hollywood says in his recipe.
After the autolyse and first rise, I followed the recipe that I’d modified earlier. I had thought that perhaps with the autolyse I wouldn’t need to use quite so much extra water but I used it all and it definitely needed it.
I did the long, slow preheat of my Baking Steel griddle and then cooked the crumpets at just above medium. This batter was definitely more bubbly and active than any other I’ve ever made and the interiors were not gummy. Though I know it’s sacrilege to split a crumpet (unlike an English muffin), I do it anyway. These ones fork-split easily, unlike the crumpets from previous batches. I plan on repeating this recipe very soon making sure to add even less batter to each ring (one recipe I consulted suggested add a scant 2 TBSP only). Glad I made that batch of lemon curd....
INGREDIENTS
6 oz (175g) soft wheat berries or whole wheat pastry flour
6 oz (175g) hard wheat berries or whole wheat bread flour
12 fl oz milk. Use 10 oz at first and hold 2 oz back for after the autolyse
14g instant yeast (or two packets or 4 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp sugar
10 oz warm water (Hollywood recipe calls for 5-7 oz)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Oil for the crumpet rings and griddle
DIRECTIONS
- Mill the flours and add to the bowl of a stand mixer, stir the flours and 10 oz of milk together. I did not use warmed milk—straight from the fridge was fine. Let sit for one hour
- Give the mixture a stir then sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the top (alternatively you could dissolve the sugar and yeast into the milk). Using the regular mixer blade (not the dough hook) and keeping the mixer running on low, slowly dribble in the milk. The only reason to do it this way is to give the dough a chance to absorb the liquid without splashing everywhere.
- Once the milk is mixed in, beat on low to medium for up to three minutes until you get a very smooth batter
- Cover and let rise 60-80 minutes. I found Hollywood's tip that the dough should rise and then start to fall super helpful. I err on the long side of rising time because the whole wheat dough does take longer
- Stir down the dough, then dissolve the salt and baking soda in the warm water. Add the water to the dough and again stir a bit by hand to avoid sloshing. Mix until well blended. Another helpful Hollywood tip is that the batter should be the consistency of double cream. I thought my batter reached that texture, but it was also very springy--my gluten strands were strong. Don't be afraid to add more water as you will definitely get better bubbles with a thinner batter
- Cover and let sit 20 minutes. While the batter sits, heat a cast iron griddle on medium-low so it has a nice long time to distribute the heat
- After the final rest, grease the griddle and up to 8 crumpet rings . Turn up the heat to a bit higher than medium (I do 5.5 or 6 out of 9)
- Use a scant 2 TBSP of batter per crumpet. You can use more, but then it makes it really hard not to get a burnt, leathery bottom on the crumpet before the top is cooked through. Cook until the top is set and you're seeing lots of bubbles. I find that my crumpets need a LONG time to cook, up to ten minutes a side. This is not consistent with Hollywood's recipe but is what I've found all the times I've made crumpets
- Either remove the rings before or after flipping and cook just a few minutes on the second side. With the new mixing method, it has been a dream to get the rings off of the crumpets, I’m happy to say
- Serve immediately or save in an airtight container or freeze, toasting to refresh, splitting if you are a heretic like me
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