Homemade Crumpets & Honeycomb Butter

Homemade Crumpets and Honeycomb Butter // The Sugar Hit

 

Here’s a question for you – would you rather be a showgirl in Vegas, or Paris? I’m in two minds over it. Topless dancing is topless dancing, and we’re talking about the fairly classy/non-sexual kind, like the Lido in Paris or, I dunno, Caesar’s Palace.

 

For me, it boils down to the lifestyle. In Vegas, your stories would definitely be better. I think weirder, funnier, crazier stuff would happen there. But in Paris, your lifestyle would be so relaxed with walks along the Seine and plenty of extended afternoons people watching from a curbside cafe.

 

Homemade Crumpets and Honeycomb Butter // The Sugar Hit

 

So hard to choose! Help me out in the comments. Anyway, here is where I should include a clever segue about how the Showgirl thing relates to crumpets. I don’t have one.

 

Other than to say that there’s probably not a less relevant foodstuff to showgirls than crumpets. Like, I highly doubt that a showgirl (in Paris or Vegas) would ever eat, let alone even think about a crumpet.

 

Homemade Crumpets and Honeycomb Butter // The Sugar Hit

 

Crumpets are for cosy nights in, and late breakfasts. They’re for drenching in butter and golden syrup and eating with mugs of tea.

 

Actually, you know what? Maybe I’m profiling to say that show-folk wouldn’t eat crumpets. They probably enjoy a late lazy breakfast as much as the next person. And there’s no-one in Paris, Vegas or elsewhere who could resist a homemade crumpet with honeycomb butter.

 

Homemade Crumpets and Honeycomb Butter // The Sugar Hit

 

That honeycomb butter? It’s the glittery headdress on top of this recipe. It’s a Bill Granger classic, recently covered by Izy Hossack, and I’m busting it out once more, because I can.

 

And also because homemade crumpets are so delicious, and so seemingly impossible, that they deserve a spangly candy-butter topping.

 

Homemade Crumpets and Honeycomb Butter // The Sugar Hit

 

The crumpet batter is incredibly easy to make – just a wooden spoon job – but you do need heatproof metal rings of about 2.5 inches (7-8cm) in diameter to cook these babies. But once that’s underway, it’s easy as pie.

 

And you have CRUMPETS! Magical, hole-y, stretchy crumpets just begging to be doused with that honeycomb-filled butter. And something perfectly delicious to munch on while you consider…Vegas or Paris?

 

xx Sarah.

 

Homemade Crumpets and Honeycomb Butter // The Sugar Hit

Homemade Crumpets & Honeycomb Butter
 
Delightful, simple homemade crumpets topped with unexpected honeycomb butter.
Author:
Serves: 12 crumpets
Ingredients
For the crumpets:
  • 1 + ½ cups (225g) plain flour
  • ¾ cup (190ml) milk
  • ¾ cup (190ml) hot water
  • 1 + ½ tsp dried active yeast
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • canola oil (or other neutral oil), to cook
For the butter:
  • ½ stick (55g) butter, soft
  • 1 oz (20g) honeycomb candy, smashed
Instructions
  1. Place the flour into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. In a separate jug, combine the milk and hot water (the mix should be just warm).
  2. Pour the milk and water into the flour, and add in the remaining ingredients, then stir with a wooden spoon until completely combined. It should be have the texture of a thick batter.
  3. Cover the bowl with plastic and set aside to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, it should bubble up and grow to just under double in size.
  4. To cook the crumpets, heat a large, heavy-based frying pan over a low heat. Take as many 2.5 inch (7-8cm) metal, heatproof rings as will fit in the pan, and grease them very well with oil (I use a pastry brush).
  5. Lightly brush the pan with oil, and add in the rings allowing them to heat up also.
  6. Drop a heaped dessertspoon of the batter (don't stir it or knock it down, just scoop the batter out) and leave to cook over a low heat for about 8 minutes, or until browned on the bottom, and completely cooked through and dry on the top.
  7. Remove the metal rings with a pair of tongs, and then carefully flip each crumpet over, just to brown the tops for a few seconds.
  8. Continue, re-greasing the rings between each batch, until all the crumpets are cooked.
  9. To make the honeycomb butter, whip the butter until light and creamy, and then fold in the crushed honeycomb.
  10. Serve the hot crumpets, or leave them to cool and then toast them (my preferred method) and slather with honeycomb butter.
 

21 Comments

  • My first instinct was obviously Paris because life there would be so much better when you weren’t working. But one of the main reasons I’d want to live in Paris in the food. If I was a showgirl, I wouldn’t be able to eat any of it. There’s no such thing as a squishy showgirl. I think I’d rather just eat the crumpets and work backstage.

  • Oh crumpets! Haven’t had them is forever … Weekend brekkie sorted!
    I would totally choose Paris …. All that culture, food, music …. I would spend days just reading at a sidewalk cafe, going to every patisserie around …..
    .mVegas is just a too big and brash and a bit desperate for my taste :)

  • In order to choose I would first have to refine the situation to stipulate that I would be a showgirl who never gained weight no matter what she ate. Once that was established it would come down to lifestyle – Vegas would be near to California and some very fine wine and food producing areas. Ditto Paris. Paris, however, would be near to historical and picturesque cities / museums / general locations (aside from simply being PARIS). That said, Vegas also has an Eiffel Tower, plus a Statue of Liberty, Great Pyramid and Dancing Waters. Geez, even with my stipulation this is proving more difficult than I thought. This will require more contemplation. And Crumpets.

  • This looks sublime! My mouth honest-to-god- watered at the sight of these. And in terms of the showgirl location conundrum, I would choose Paris because, well, Paris. I would just have to convince the world that curvy, Marilyn Monroe-esque, mid-century voluptuous showgirls are truly what is in, then dig into a croissant.

  • Paris.
    Paris.
    Paris.
    And a little more paris.
    I would eat my way out of my job and then get a job as a jewelry designer that traveled the world – eating crumpets! I love crumpets. They are just a whole bunch of yum. Warm and crispy off the cast iron pan that was once my grandmother’s. Yes, I would give up a life on the stage to eat crumpets and croissants, to create magnificent jewelery, and, most of all, to enjoy my crumpets with jam and tea and beside conversations with my dear, sweet friends and family.

  • It’s funny – many Americans are of the misconception that crumpets are tea cookies – like sables, or something.

    For the record, I’d rather be topless in Paris.

  • I don’t think we have anything like the honeycomb candy in the US, but I’ve been thinking about it since the chocolate mousse/pomegranate seed/honeycomb candy recipe you posted. Can you buy the candy online? What would you use if you couldn’t find it? Maybe some kind of brittle?

  • Hello. Great recipe :) I was just wondering, the recipe states ‘dried active yeast’. Would this just be active dry yeast, or instant active dry yeast? Sorry! Baking amateur here. :) Thanks x

    • Hey lovely – I honestly don’t think it would make a major difference. I’m 90% sure they’re the same thing. But if you want a definite answer, go for the active dry yeast.
      xx
      Sarah

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