A diary of life in rural Redwood, Co. Tipperary as told by a city girl

A Year In Redwood

Starlight4u

Is it just my lockdown brain that is causing me to crave foods I haven’t had in years and years? Are others going through the same thing? I am frantically trying to avoid baking ….. well if I bake, we will have to eat the results!!

My current craving is for rice pudding. I haven’t succumbed to that YET!

The craving I did give in to was crumpets. I cannot remember when I last had crumpets. It was probably when we still lived in Dublin. However, recently the word got in to my brain and I just had to have some. I am not exaggerating when I say I spent weeks looking up various recipes and dithering about making them. I decided they would be too difficult. The recipes called for ‘muffin rings’. I have never in my life come across a ‘muffin ring’.

Did the ‘google’ thing and yes you can buy rings especially to have perfectly round muffins.

And, then, wonder of wonders I discovered there is such a thing as a pikelet, in other words an irregular shaped muffin.

I was good to go. And, let me tell you despite all my dithering and hopping from one recipe to another, they so easy to make.

In fact, the only problem with them is that…. they are so easy to make you will be making them TOO much. 

Combine milk and water and heat gently until just warm. Just warm enough that you can touch.

Mix your dry ingredients together. Make a well in the centre and gradually add in the milk. Cover your bowl with clingfilm. You now need to set this aside and let the mixture double in size. Obviously, the time involved depends on how warm your kitchen is.

 to speed up the process .. place bowl in the oven with the oven light on. This brings temperature in oven up to about 22 deg. C and your mixture will have doubled in about an hour.

To cook your muffins (pikelets), grease a heavy pan with a little butter and place on high heat. Put spoonfuls of the mixture (which will be quite elasticy .. I know not a word, but you’ll know what I mean) on the pan and cook for a few minutes each side.

As with making pancakes I have found that the first one is not the best! However, they more you make the better they get. Don’t rush the process, and the longer you can leave on pan (without burning) the more they will rise.

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