Vanilla bean crumpets

MAKES 14 PREP + COOK TIME 1 HOUR (+ STANDING TIME)

Many years ago we received a call from a man stationed in the Arctic without access to shops, desperate for a recipe for crumpets. We were only too happy to oblige. In the intervening years we’ve created more recipes, always improving on the texture and flavour. Our latest version here has just the right porous texture to capture plenty of melted butter.

1 vanilla bean, split lengthways

3⅓ cups (500g) bread flour

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons (7g) dried yeast ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons fine sea salt olive oil, for greasing butter, to serve

1 Scrape seeds from vanilla bean; reserve pods for another use

(see tips). Place seeds in the bowl of a food processor with 21/3 cups (580ml) warm water and remaining ingredients, except oil and butter; process until smooth. Keep mixture in processor with lid on; stand in a warm place for 30 minutes.

2 Working in batches, lightly grease four 8cm egg rings or round cutters with oil. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with oil then place over high heat. Place rings in pan; fill each ring with a scant ¼ cup of batter. Reduce heat to medium; cook for 5 minutes or until tops have bubbles and batter tops look dry. Turn crumpets over. Remove rings; cook for a further 3 minutes or until golden brown. Repeat, in batches, to make a total of 14 crumpets.

3 Serve warm crumpets with butter.

Suitable to freeze.