Autumn Apple Crumpets

Today we felt like apple crumpets. They were delicious, so we decided to share the recipe. And what’s the best thing about this dish? The fact that I always have all the ingredients at home, so even when some little guests drop by I don’t need to worry what to serve. I quickly prepare a yummy snack while the kids are at play, and then they simply pack it all away.

Preparation

I mixed all the batter ingredients. Then I heated the oil in a pan, scooped the batter and placed it onto the pan, and decorated each crumpet with a slice of apple. I fried them until light golden brown. At the end I sprinkled them with cinnamon and that’s it.

The batter has yeast in it, so it needs time

This is the step the recipe passes over, and it is the one that decides whether you get crumpets or flat discs. Ten grams of yeast is in the ingredients, and yeast does nothing in the few minutes between mixing and frying. Cover the bowl and leave the batter in a warm place for 30 to 60 minutes, until the surface is visibly bubbly and the mass has risen.

How the yeast goes in depends on which kind you have. Fresh yeast is crumbled into the warm drink with the coconut sugar and left for ten minutes until it foams, which also tells you it is still alive. Instant dry yeast is stirred straight into the flour. Either way the batter then rests as one.

Warm, not hot

The recipe says warm plant-based drink for a reason. Yeast works best around body temperature and dies above roughly 50 degrees, so a drink heated properly on the hob and used straight away kills it before it starts.

The test is your finger: the drink should feel pleasantly warm, not hot. Cold milk is the milder mistake, it only makes the rise slower, but it will double or triple the waiting time.

Oat flour behaves differently from wheat

Oat flour has no gluten, so there is no elastic network to trap the gas the yeast produces. The batter still rises and lightens, but less dramatically than a wheat one, and the crumpets are more delicate to turn. That is normal and not a sign the yeast failed.

The range in the recipe, two and a half to three cups, is there because oat flour varies in how finely it is milled and how much liquid it takes. Aim for a thick batter that drops slowly off a spoon rather than pouring: too thin and the crumpets spread into pancakes, too thick and the middles stay raw.

Frying, and the apple on top

Medium heat and patience. These are thick and yeasted, so the inside needs time, and a hot pan gives you a dark crust over raw batter. Spoon the batter on, press a slice of apple into the top of each one, and leave them alone until the edges look set and bubbles show on the surface before turning.

Slice the apple thin, two or three millimetres. A thick slice stays hard and falls out when you turn the crumpet, while a thin one softens into the batter and cooks through with it. The cinnamon goes on at the end, over the hot crumpets, where it sticks.

Eating them and keeping them

They are best within the first hour, like anything fried, and they go soft as they cool. Reheat them in a dry pan for a minute a side rather than in a microwave, which turns them rubbery.

They keep two days in a closed container and freeze for a month. The batter itself does not keep: once the yeast has done its work and the batter has risen, it starts to collapse and turn sour, so fry the whole batch. If you would rather have autumn baking planned into the week with a shopping list, that is what the Diet & Training by Ann app does.

Anna Lewandowska

Autumn apple crumpets

Yeasted oat flour crumpets fried in coconut oil with a thin slice of apple pressed into each one and cinnamon sprinkled over at the end.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings: 12 crumpets

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Polish

Calories: 120

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 and 1/2 cups warm plant-based drink
• 1 egg
• 2 and 1/2-3 cups oat flour
• 10 g yeast
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
• 1 big apple
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• a pinch of cinnamon

Method

 

1. Warm the plant-based drink until it feels pleasantly warm to the finger, not hot.
   
2. Crumble fresh yeast into the warm drink with the coconut sugar and leave it 10 minutes until it foams, or stir instant dry yeast straight into the flour.
   
3. Mix all the batter ingredients into a thick batter that drops slowly off a spoon.
   
4. Cover the bowl and leave the batter in a warm place for 30 to 60 minutes, until the surface is bubbly and the mass has risen.
   
5. Heat the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat and spoon the batter in.
   
6. Press a thin slice of apple into the top of each crumpet and fry until the edges set and bubbles show, then turn and finish the second side until light golden brown.
   
7. Sprinkle the hot crumpets with cinnamon and serve.
   

Notes

Ingredient quantities are taken from the recipe box as published. Calories are an estimate from the listed quantities.

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