Crumpets

It is fun to make your own crumpets from a few simple ingredients. These crumpets are slightly softer than the commercial variety. They can be frozen.

Ingredients

4 cups plain flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1½ tsp salt

1½ tsp sugar

3 cups warm water 

1 tsp instant yeast

 Method

Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, salt into large bowl. Dissolve yeast in a little water, and when all the yeast has been incorporated into the water add it to dry ingredients. Beat until smooth.

Pre-heat a frypan, lightly grease some egg-rings, put them in frypan to heat them through. When hot, three-quarters fill the rings with batter.

Allow to cook over low heat for approximately ten minutes or until surface is covered with holes. Remove rings.

Cover frypan and cook further 2 to 3 minutes or until surface has set. Remove from pan, cool on wire rack.

When cold, toast and serve with butter.

Maple pecan pinwheels

Ingredients

Biscuit 

185g butter roughly chopped
2 cups plain flour (300g)
½ cup brown sugar (100g)
2 tblspns maple syrup
1 egg yolk

 Filling 

1/3 cup maple syrup
½ cup pecan nuts very finely chopped
4 tsp cinnamon sugar

Method

Put the butter, flour and sugar into a food processor and process until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the maple syrup and egg yolk, and process again until the mixture forms a ball, then remove from the processor, and knead on a lighly floured board until smooth. Wrap in a 60cm long piece of plastic wrap (there is a reason for that length) and put in the fridge to rest for an hour.
Remove the wrap and set it aside for later.

Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper – you are aiming to get a rectangle of dough 48cm long and 28cm wide (which is the width of the average sheet of baking paper). You don’t want to make it too long, because it needs to be able to fit in your fridge. I found that putting the baking paper on a silicon sheet helps to keep it still on the bench.

Spread the maple syrup on the dough, sprinkle with the pecan and cinnamon sugar. Roll it up along the long edge, using the baking paper to help. Wrap in the plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 180°.

Remove the plastic from your roll, and cut 1cm slices, and bake on a greased baking tray (I reused the baking paper). Bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on the tray before moving to racks.

Makes about 50 biscuits.