Bite sized maple syrup crumpets

Recently I got a lovely big bottle of Great Northern grade A amber Maple Syrup and have been dying to use it, aside from slurping up a few teaspoons on the side. Naturally my first thoughts ran to pancakes or crumpets but I had also been dreaming about basting a pork roast or doing some sticky ribs with it. Anyway, the crumpets won this morning.

My granny often used to make us crumpets. I remember the butter and honey running off the hot crumpets all over our hands as we ate them. When I started to make them myself I experimented with making little bite sized crumpets so that you could top them and pop them into your mouth before the topping slid off. The American way of making big crumpets, stacking them and eating them with a knife and fork somehow never appealed to me. Not sure why…

Since my granny is no longer with us, I improvised a recipe which was really easy but not as good as my grannies. I think I am going to have to call my mother and see if she remembers the recipe. It could also be that my granny had this antique crumpet pan made out of heavy black iron and looked like it was transported here by ox wagon… perhaps that was what made the difference…

Crumpets

Makes about 40 bite sized crumpets

2 ½ cups of flour

4 Tbsp of castor sugar (I used 6 Tbsp of maple syrup)
2 large eggs
2 tsp (10ml) of melted butter
1 cup (250ml) of milk
2 ½ tsp of baking powder (make sure it has not expired)

½ tsp of vanilla essence (optional)
½ tsp of salt

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Beat the eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla essence in a separate bowl. Whisk the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Stir well to form a smooth batter. Leave the mixture for 30 minutes.

Fry the crumpets on medium heat in a greased pan. I found a table spoon of the mixture dropped into the hot pan was enough to make one bite sized crumpet. With a spatula carefully flip each crumpet once it starts to bubble evenly all over. Adjust the temperature of the stove if they are browning too quickly.

Serve them with maple syrup or butter and honey. Some people like nutella or jam.