One of the things that bugs me about growing sourdough starters is the need to discard starter to refresh it. If you bake everyday and use it, then you have no problems. I can't keep up with that much sourdough bread, or bake everyday. So I'm left with throwing out cups and cups of perfectly good starter. Not anymore!
I know I had read a recipe recently for crumpets made with "spent" sourdough starter, the starter that has had the food consumed by your wild yeast growth. You remove it to make room for fresh water and flour, often going into the garbage.
I have a few containers of "spent" sourdough starter that I couldn't bear to through out, one container had 3 cups of starter! So crumpets were on the menu.
I searched google and came up with several recipes, most a riff on the King Arthur recipe, the one I followed I found here at Mum's Cookbook blog.
I made a few changes, adding more sugar (I have a sweet tooth) and using an electric nonstick griddle. I tried using the suggested frying pan, but my crumpets stuck. Ouch.
I should note that I used a 200% hydration starter (1 measuring cup flour to 1 measuring cup water), your consistency my vary due to the hydration % of your starter. My crumpets were a bit "pancake-y".
Throwing over to yeastspotting.
"Spent" Sourdough Crumpets
adapted from "Sourdough Crumpets" at Mum's Cookbook blog.
makes about 14, using 4" English Muffin, Crumpet rings
3 cups spent sourdough starter
1 tbs + 2 tsp sugar (reduce to 1 tbs for a more savoury crumpet)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
Preheat electric griddle to 300F. If using a frying pan, preheat to medium low heat.
Grease as many rings as fit comfortably on your griddle or in your pan. Put them on the griddle or in the pan.
Mix your ingredients and watch them bubble up - it's like those old baking soda/vinegar volcanoes!
Fill your rings about 1/2 up the ring.
Cook for 5 minutes, until the sides at the top of the crumpet look dry.
Remove the ring and gently flip the crumpet over. Cook for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Remove to plate and let cool.
How thrilling to get a mention in someone else's blog. Hope you enjoyed the crumpets.
ReplyDeleteI'm still working on an easy English Muffin recipe and the sourdough baked entirely in the bread oven is coming along nicely so stay tuned.
I loved the crumpets! Mine were a bit more like pancakes, probably due to the high hydration in the soudough starter. Next time I'll add some white flour to make a thicker batter.
ReplyDeleteYour version of the recipe was the easiest to follow, I very much appreciated finding it.
I'll definitely watch your blog for English Muffins. :)
Thanks for the comment!