rumtumtigger

There is something about the word “crumpets” that makes me think of Valentines Day. As far as I know, I have no special memory of crumpets on Valentines Day but when I thought of what I could make for the kids lunchboxes for this auspicious day, that is the first thing that came to mind.

There isn’t even anything special about the recipe. Just a basic that has always been in my recipe book made up of print outs from the Internet so it required some tweaking. Here is the basic recipe, originally from Food24 http://www.food24.com/Recipes/Crumpets-20091103-2 . I have added my tweaks in bold. I got the idea of using my heart shaped cookie cutters (coated in non-stick spray) from Jan’s Valentines post http://blogs.food24.com/janicetripepi/2012/02/13/v-day-is-d-day-with-heart-shaped-blini-roasted-ginger-figs-and-parma-ham-chevin-parcels/. The pegs didn’t work for me so I flipped them over using two egg lifters and had to work very fast to stop the unset crumpet mixture from not running out of the cookie cutter when turning it over.

Ingredients

250ml self-raising flour

2ml bicarbonate of soda

pinch salt

250ml plain yoghurt, buttermilk or sour milk

1 extra-large egg

15ml melted butter

25g dark chocolate roughly chopped (feel free to add nuts, berries, dried fruit but adjust the flavour of essence accordingly – when it doubt, vanilla works for most things)

5ml orange essence (or any other flavour that tickles your fancy)

your choice of food colouring to suit the occassion if necessary – in my case, I used a tiny splash of pink gel colouring

Method