Crumpets!!! With 3 times as many exclamation marks.

Yes. They’re that good and worthy of {at least} three exclamation marks. Now that I’ve made crumpets multiple times, {or, um, twice}, I think I’m improving my technique. Case in point: the crumpets have been getting holier without having to go to church or say penance. The more holes a crumpet has,  the better routes for butter saturation. Holy moly.
For my second try, I decided to mix things up.  I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose. I also added honey and cinnamon  for flavor. I think for my next attempt I will use vanilla and maple syrup. I’m tempted to add chocolate chips, but I fear they will interfere with hole production.

Honey Cinnamon Whole Wheat Crumpets

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 cup lukewarm milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1) Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and beat vigorously for 2 minutes. A stand or hand mixer, set on high speed, work well here.

2) Cover the bowl, and let the batter rest at room temperature for 1 hour. It will expand and become bubbly. Towards the end of the rest, preheat a griddle to medium-low, about 325°F. If you don’t have an electric griddle, preheat a frying pan.

3) Lightly grease the griddle or frying pan, and place well-greased 3 3/4″ English muffin rings in the pan, as many as will fit.  Pour sticky batter by the scant 1/4-cupful into each ring; a muffin scoop works well here.

4) After about 4 minutes, use a pair of tongs to slip the rings off. Cook the crumpets for a total of about 10 minutes on the first side, until their tops are riddled with small bubbles/holes. They should be starting to look a bit dry around the edges. Their bottoms will be a mottled, light-golden brown.

5) Turn the crumpets over, and cook for an additional 5 minutes, to finish cooking the insides and to brown the tops gently.

6) Remove the crumpets from the pan, and repeat with the remaining batter, until all the crumpets are cooked. Serve warm. Or cool completely, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature. To enjoy, warm in the toaster. Serve with butter, or butter and jam.

Yield: about twenty 3 3/4″ crumpets.

Photos by Paulrus

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Whole Wheat Walnut Bread

For a delicious and quick 100% whole-wheat bread look no further then the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book and the recipe for Whole Wheat Walnut Bread. I used traditional whole wheat flour and didn’t finely chop the walnuts. I love the texture of bigger pieces of nuts in the bread. Okay, the truth is I missed that I was supposed to finely chop or crush the walnuts until it was too late. I do love the crunchiness though, so it was a good mistake.

The bread makes excellent toasted peanut  butter and gooseberry jam (my new favorite flavor) sandwiches.  You can find the recipe HERE. The recipe in the book is slightly different. It gives you the option of using traditional whole wheat.

Whole Wheat Zucchini Muffins

My sister’s boyfriend showed up at my parent’s house with a giant zucchini. Yes, literally, a giant zucchini that came from his family’s garden.  I cook with zucchini all the time, but I’ve never baked with it. I know zucchini bread is a summer classic when the squash is in season and home gardeners have so much their friends and neighbors run away screaming because they don’t want anymore.

Giant Zucchini: 3 lbs, 3 oz

I found a recipe for Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book and decided to try it. Instead of a loaf, I made muffins. The recipe made 16 standard-sized muffins. Also, instead of grating the zucchini (my parents don’t have a box grater. Who doesn’t have one?), I diced it really small. Or tried to dice it really small. I’m lazy with my knife skills.

The muffins turned out great, diced zucchini and all, and were a big hit at the office. Which reminds me, another reason I made these was to bring something into the office on Monday. I made cookies, but now that I’m in a house full of people they didn’t last the weekend. Apparently, my staff was a bit traumatized when I wasn’t able to bake for a few weekends and showed up to work empty-handed. They told me never to do it again.

You can find the recipe from the book HERE.  There is a different whole wheat zucchini bread recipe on the King Arthur website.