Easy Pikelets

These are one of my top 10 favourite brunch items (coming from a brunch fanatic, that really means something) and they are great with both sweet and savoury toppings.

These are basically free-form, thin crumpets that are cooked like scotch pancakes and turn out nicely browned on both sides. They have that fabulous airy column structure associated with crumpets and are much less stressful to make! They don't require any special equipment or know-how, so why not give them a try?

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

Whisk

Mixing Bowl

Frying Pan

Big Spoon

*Pastry Brush (not essential, but helpful)

INGREDIENTS:

300g Bread Flour

10g Dried Yeast

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Sugar

400g Milk (but I have also had good results with water should you want a vegan option)

25g Olive Oil

Cooking Oil

1) In a big mixing bowl, combine the flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Give it a good whisk so that everything is well mingled, then make a well and pour in the milk and oil. Give everything a good whisk until it makes a smooth, batter-like mixture the will drop freely from a spoon but leave a thick, sticky layer. Cover the bowl and leave it somewhere nice an warm like a sunlit windowsill for at least an hour.

The batter is ready to use when it has doubled in size and has millions of tiny bubbles.

2) Heat the frying pan on a medium-low low. When hot, slowly pour a big spoonful of batter into the frying pan. (I could comfortably fit 3 pikelets in the frying pan, allowing room for flipping.) To get thicker pikelets, take your time pouring it into the frying pan. This allows the batter to cook on contact and will slow down the inevitable spreading. This also pops fewer bubbles, making for an airier pikelet.

3) Cook the pikelets for about 5 minutes until the batter has puffed up a bit, there are air bubbles on the surface and the batter has started to cook around the edges. Flip the pikelet and cook for another 5 minutes. It should be roughly 1.5cm thick and be beautifully golden on both sides. It will take several batches to make all of the pikelets, or try a rolling system where you add a new pikelet to the pan as soon as one is removed.

4) Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven until all of the pikelets have been made.