Sourdough crumpet

I thought it’s about time I did another recipe and although it’s another sourdough one it felt like the right choice because I made them for breakfast for me and my very pregnant wife! So it’s also my first video on here.

First thing you need to know about is how to make a starter, which is simple water and flour (sounds easy right!?).

For something that has so few ingredients it’s by far the hardest thing I’ve made! My starter is now just over a year old but it took me and my whole kitchen team about 10 failed attempts till we finally got her alive and stable.

A starter is simply a way of creating your own yeast by collecting the natural wild yeast which is in the air all around us. The flour and water is basically the sticky thing it’s gets stuck to! That’s how I see it anyway.

First of all you need to mix 100g of strong white flour with 100g of warm water. The water must be body temperature because it’s that temp that bacteria thrive and we are trying to incubate bacteria essentially. Mix this with your hand and make sure all the lumps are gone. You must then find a plastic tub or glass jar (I use a kilner jar). It needs to be left in a warm place, again think body temperature. If yeast gets too hot it will die and if it’s too cold it won’t multiply fast and will take a long time. I found this very easy in a commercial kitchen because it’s really hot but my kitchen at home it’s cold in comparison. I have found a windowsill above a radiator works well or a window that’s drenched in sunlight for part of the day.

Leave your flour and water with a tea towel over it or a small bit of muslin just damp so your starter won’t dry out but can collect yeast from the air. The next day at the same time that your created her you need to feed her….

You need to get rid of 50g of the starter, just throw it away. Then mix 50g of warm water and 50g of strong white flour together with your hand then pour the rest of your starter into it and mix well again. Pour it all back into your container and leave it in the same warm place for another 24 hours. You’re gonna repeat this process at the same time each day for a week. You must be diligent in this and if you forget your newly born starter will die. Each day you should see some bubbles and you should start to notice a smell. If at anytime there are no bubbles and no smell then you can assume that she is dead I’m afraid.

After a week you should have a good bubbly pot of yeasty goodness. Now you can feed her every two days. You can throw away as much or as little as you like but always replace it with the same amount of flour and water. At this point I would reccomend making some bread! Each time you make a loaf you replace what you took out.

So now you have a starter! After some weeks you can keep her in the fridge and she will only need feeding once a week or after you make crumpets each morning so you don’t run out of starter.

The recipe for crumpets is simple,

250g starter

1 table spoon of honey

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda (last thing in!)

Please let me know if you have any success with your starter or your crumpets on social media, you can find links on the homepage. I look forward to hearing from you.