Tea and Crumpets

Yesterday I went in search of the "Crumpet" I don't know how many times I've heard about these things growing up, but I realized when I was in Sainsbury's (the grocery store) that I had no idea what they were or even what section they would be in.

Once I actually found and purchased said crumpets I thought "Oh these are like english muffins" Which I found out in England are just called "Muffins". Strangely they drop the "English" part off. That leads to another hilarious tale of all the items in the stores here that have the word "American" tagged to the front. American Chocolate Chip Cookies, American Southern Fried Chicken etc etc. Anyways back to the review.

These are storebought crumpets and not anything super fresh. They are Sainsbury's brand which is similar to Best Choice or Sam's Choice. My first thought upon pulling these out of the package is that they aren't anything like English muffins at all. These are soft almost like a soft piece of foam rubber. You can bend them quite a bit without them breaking in half and they feel moist. I had a feeling they were going to be pretty good right off.



This close-up picture from the top shows the holes on the top of the crumpet. The bottoms however are flat and smooth and slightly brown. It's very similar to what a pancake looks like on top right before you flip it (when the batter starts bubbling). In true English tradition I applied Jam and Butter liberally after toasting. The recommended method for heating these up is on the grill but that was too much work and I'm not sure what they mean by "grill" because they certainly aren't talking about my little smokey at home.



Have I been changed by this experience? Did I fall in love with Tea and Crumpets? It's hard to say.



Cheers!