How To make Muffins and Crumpets(Mrs. Beeton's)
1 qt Water
2 oz Yeast
1/2 lb Potatoes
1/2 oz Salt
Makes 24 Muffins or Crumpets flour MUFFINS: Wash, peel and boil the potatoes, rub through a colander, add the water (just warm enough to bear the hand in it without discomfort); then dissolve the yeast and salt in it, and stir in sufficient flour to make a moist paste. Beat it well in a deep bowl and then clear off the paste from the hands; cover over with a clean cloth and leave it to rise in a warm place. When it has well risen, and is light and spongy, turn it out on the table, dredge over with flour, and then divide it off into pieces about 3 oz in weight, roll them up into round shapes, and set them on a wooden tray, well dusted with flour to prove. When light enough, see that the hot plate is hot, and then carefully transfer the muffins from the tray, one at a time, using a thin tin slice for the purpose, taking particular care not to knock out the proof or the muffins will be spoilt. When they have been properly cooked on one side, turn over with the slice and cook the other side. When the muffins are done, brush off the flour, and lay them on a clean cloth or sieve to cool. To toast them, divide the edge of the muffin all round by pulling it open to the depth of about 1 inch with the fingers. Put it on a toasting fork and hold it before a clear fire till one side is nicely browned, but not burnt; turn, and toast it on the other. Do not toast them too quickly, otherwise the middle of the muffin will not be warmed through. When done, divide them by pulling them open; butter them slighlty on both sides, put them together again, and cut them into halves. Pile on a hot dish and send quickly to table. Time: 25 to 30 minutes to bake. Sufficient for about 2 dozen muffins. CRUMPETS: Proceed exactly the same as directed for Muffins (above), but stir in only half the quantity of flour used for them, so that the mixture is more of a batter than a sponge. Cover over, and leave for 1/2 an hour. At the end of that time take a large wooden spoon and well beat up the batter, leave in the spoon, cover over, and leave for another 1/2 an hour. Then give the batter another good beat up. This process must be repeated 3 times with the intervals. When completed, see that the hot plate is quite hot, lay out some crumpet rings rubbed over inside with a little clean lard on a baking tin, and pour in sufficient of the batter to make the crumpets. When cooked on one side, turn over with a palette-knife, and when done take off on to a clean cloth to cool. Muffins and crumpets should always be served on separate dishes, and both toasted and served as quickly as possible. Time: about 20 minutes to cook. Sufficient for about 2 dozen. From: Mrs. Beeton's All About Cookery, Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd., London & Melbourne, (circa 1890's). Posted by June Hoffman, 8/93
How To make Muffins and Crumpets(Mrs. Beeton's)'s Videos
Golden Aussie Crumpets with my own Wild Hive Honey
Recorded for Ryan Earl
The Best of Mrs Beeton's Cakes and Baking
Available in Amazon:
More Cookies recipes:
Available:
The Best of Mrs Beeton's Cakes and Baking
From simple and economical recipes such as gingerbread, banana cake and breads for everyday filling-up to extravagant gateaux oozing with fruit and cream, from basic breads to muffins and crumpets, this selection of international classics provides the modern cook with everything he or she needs to provide delicious freshly-baked goods for all occasions
With helpful tips, serving ideas and the basic recipes you need to allow your own culinary creativity to take flight, this bakery bible deserves a place in every kitchen.
ISBN 0304368296
Author:
Isabella Beeton
Publisher:
Cassell
Rank: 90 (52)
- Amazon: 5 (5)
- GoodReads: 4 (47)
Common terms:
0304368296, Best cookie recipes, vegan cookies, pumpkin cookies, cookie dough, easy cookie recipes, butter cookies, gingerbread cookies, shortbread cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, how to make cookies, oatmeal cookies, christmas cookies, sugar cookie recipe, peanut butter cookies, no bake cookies cookies, chocolate chip cookies, cookie recipes, Meringue
More Reviews:
Main Channel:
Mrs Beeton - A Review by David Holmes of Hurds Hill, Langport, Somerset.
David Holmes of Hurds Hill in Langport, Somerset, reviews the works of Isabella Beeton - affectionately known simply as Mrs Beeton.
Who was the lady who brought us the famous 1861 work entitled Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management?
What were her tips on running an efficient household? And how long did she live?
Follow us:
Website HurdsHill.com
Instagram instagram.com/HurdsHill
Facebook facebook.com/HurdsHillHouse
EASY Homemade Crumpets
Here are my crumpets - very nice!
CRUMPETS (makes 6)
INGREDIENTS
• 150g plain white flour
• 200ml warm water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
Yeast Mixture
• 1 tsp instant/dry yeast
• 1 TBSP warm water
Cooking:
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
METHOD
Dissolve the yeast in 1 TBSP of warm water
Place the flour, water and salt in a bowl and whisk for 2 minutes by hand or 1 minute with a handheld electric blender
Add the yeast mix, sugar and baking powder into the bowl, then whisk for 30 seconds (or 15 sec)
Cover the bowl and place in a warm place for 15 to 30 minutes until the surface gets foamy
Grease 2 or 3 rings with butter
Lightly brush a non-stick frying pan with melted butter then place rings in the pan.
Heat the pan until a knob of butter on a fork just sizzles when it touches the surface of the pan
Pour enough batter into the rings to half fill them
Cook for 1 1/2 minutes - bubbles should start appearing on the surface (but not popping yet).
Turn heat down and cook for 1 minute - some bubbles should pop around the edges
Turn heat down a bit more and cook for a further 2 1/2 to 4 minutes, until the surface is set and it is clear there will be no more bubbles popping! Feel free to pop any remaining bubbles
Loosen around the edges of the crumpet with a knife and remove the rings
Flip and cook the other side for 20 to 30 seconds just to give them a bit of colour
Transfer to write rack to cool down
Best served reheated the following day with a great big knob of butter and the topping of your choice
#ddu
Homemade Crumpets | Diggy Dishes Up!
Mrs Beetons Crumpets
Welcome to my first blog post in association with Ian Sutton. Over the last year Ian and I have been involved with many historic culinary projects. We were first taken back in time by a former student of Westminster Kingsway College Sophie Wright who asked if we would like to help out in creating a vast amount of dishes from Queen Victoria and Alberts Wedding feast. So yes of course we did! Both Ian and I are classically trained professional chefs and have worked together as chef lecturers over a number of years. Ian is perfectly organised, very creative and I would say a little OCD. He is also very wary of social media. I am also very creative and artistic, perhaps a little haphazard, but
always up for new challenges and embrace social media across lots of platforms. All in all, a very collaborative working partnership that aptly addresses our needs. Our love of cooking, flavours, fresh produce, tasting, kitchen banter and drive have given us both opportunities to work on some very rewarding ventures.
We are currently working with English Heritage recreating recipes from the 18th century head cook of Audley End, Mrs Avis Crocombe. This project inspired us to look at other popular cooks in the Victorian era, such as Mrs. Isabella Beeton. Many enthusiasts have written about Mrs. Beeton and suggest that her recipes were plagiarised, untried and do not work. However, as a child I was fed on many cakes and biscuits by my mother and grandmother, who both swore by her recipes. The recipes definitely worked for them …….. and me! By chance, Ian was given a leather bound
first edition of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management by his late father many years ago, a prized feature in his library of cookery books. So we both have compelling motives and memories of this famous publisher. Our blog wants to explore Mrs. Beeton’s baking recipes, test them out and decide for ourselves if they work or should be adapted in some way. We also want to look back at the fascinating history of the recipes and ingredients and see if we can unearth any thought-provoking tales.
Our first recipe is for crumpets, so first here is a little history of one of the UK’s favourite toasted brunch snack. ‘A thick, flat, savoury cake with a soft, porous texture, made from a yeast mixture cooked on a griddle and eaten toasted and buttered’ (OED).
Going back to when the Anglo Saxon migrants first inhabited Great Briton in the 5th century, the first recognised “crumpet” was cooked on a griddle and was arguably a hard pancake. Yorkshireman John Wycliffe was Oxfords leading philosopher and theologian. In the 1300’s his translations from Latin in the Old Testament mention a “crompid cake”. Crompid goes back to the Old English crump, crumb, ‘crooked’, and is related to modern English crumple. Perhaps the crumpet was more of a ‘drop scone’? Subsequently, I discovered a recipe from business Woman and author Elizabeth Raffald included in her book ‘The Experienced English Housekeeper’ 1769. The book appears to be a favourite of Queen Victoria who copied small parts of the book in her diaries. Elizabeth’s recipe was first to describe a method but no yeast or baking powder was added at this stage. The bubbles were part of a fermentation using a malt froth called a ‘barm’.The Victorian era introduced German pressed yeast to the recipe, as well as metal rings. These gave a more cake-like appearance and consistent sizes to the crumpets. This was listed in Mrs. Beeton’s ‘Book of Household Management’
1861. At this time it was nice to find out that the humble crumpet was not a class related dish, but enjoyed by “urchins” on the street to the ladies and gents of high society.
In 1843 Food manufacturer and Chemist Alfred Bird discovered the first modern baking powder. His research was primarily motivated by the need to finding a solution for his wife Elizabeth’s allergies to yeast and eggs. I must comment that only recently in 2014 were allergen laws put into place, highlighting in the media the public’s awareness of allergens - 171 years after this breakthrough leavening agent was invented! Subsequently in the mid 1800’s the crumpet had a little extra lift with the help of baking powder. This provided the lovely aeration and the broken bubble look on top that we know and love. At this point I will also mention the “pikelet”, which was anglicised from the Welsh ‘from bara pygld’. This is the poor man’s crumpet and is a close cousin to the crumpet, except it is flat but equally delicious dropped onto a hot griddle and buttered. Our recipe today is without baking powder and straight from Mrs. Beeton’s book. She suggests toasting with a fork in a “bright clear fire, nicely brown on one side, but do not allow to blacken. Turn it, brown the other side; then spread it with good butter” …………………………. so we will see.
making a crumpets cake
making a crumpets cake for the first time