The Extraction Space

Since The Fictionados are trying to organize a tea party at Worldcon in one of the party suites some afternoon, I decided i was going to make crumpets. So I cracked out the old copy of Time/Life Books "Foods of the World: Cooking of the British Isles" volume (and if anybody knows a good source for the spiral bound recipe books that came with "Foods of the World", please let me know. I'm missing several) and found a crumpet recipe. Williams Sonoma egg rings turn out to make fine crumpet rings, and I'd seen several places that recommended using bread flour rather than all purpose, so I went with that. Simple recipe, really - proof the yeast, combine with flour, salt, milk, butter, and egg, let the dough rise for an hour, grease a skillet and the rings, spoon in batter, and remove the ring and flip when the bubbles break on the top. It looks like the trickiest part is heat control (too high and they'll burn before they cook through). Well, that and not eating the entire batch right away. Yumm! Next, we learn some variations.