"Muffins", "Crumpets" and "Pikelets"

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Over on Ken's blog we have been discussing "Muffins", "Crumpets" and "Pikelets".

I decided to do a bit of 'research'.......well, it's a real "can of worms"! (not really).

It is true that both the word ‘Muffin’ and ‘Crumpet’ have referred to, shall we say, casual lady friends.

The OED quotes examples from 1856 of these ladies in Canada being referred to as “muffins”.

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The word “muffin” is connected to the French word “moufflet” ..soft bread.

The probable origin of the word “crumpet” is the Welsh “crempog”, a pancake or fritter.

Both are made of batter, both require re-cooking, and both are served hot and well buttered. (I like the thought of a ‘hot buttered’ woman!)

Crumpets, the round things with lots of holes, are available from grocers and supermarkets rather than a bakery.

Perhaps they are delivered direct from a plastics recycling plant and have never seen the inside of a bakers!

One rarely sees a real muffin, (so I’m told), except in Lancashire where they are sold by the local baker.

Now in my copy of “Bread and Yeast Cookery” by Elizabeth David, there are scores of recipes for both crumpets and muffins dating from as far back as 1747.

They all seem to use the same ingredients….. However some were cooked thin, for a short time and others were cooked in a deep metal ring for a bit longer.

It actually seems a very regional thing, probably passed on from mother to daughter.

Some areas, like in the Midlands, used to add brown flour, others only used white.

I have found recipes for Scotch crumpets, Scarborough muffins and Lancashire muffins, all variations on a theme.

So muffins and crumpets….similar ingredients…..muffins cooked deep….crumpets made from a thinner batter and cooked on a open griddle.

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How about this Pikelet (above) then?

In Lancashire and Yorkshire, crumpets are sometimes called ‘pikelets‘.

The earliest recipe I found for a pikelet, came from Leicestershire dated 1841.

Again we have the same batter mixture, but with perhaps more egg and a pinch of nutmeg.

A Staffordshire recipe states that “they should be as thick only as pancakes” but goes on to say “if they are made as thick as a muffin, they should be split and buttered inside”.

Pikelets are in the North often referred to as “Griddle Pancakes” and in the South as “Drop Scones”. In Scotland and in Wales they are a yeasted “Drop Scone”.

I would therefore conclude by saying …..at one end….

...we have a muffin. The thickest or deepest, that is soft, bread-like and could be sliced, toasted and buttered inside.***

Next down the scale (in dimensions) there is a crumpet. This is more like a pancake mixture and has the characteristic ‘holes’. Being thinner is does not need to be sliced but is toasted on both sides and buttered only on the side with the holes.

Finally we have the pikelet ….a thinner crumpet mixture which results in a thinner version of a crumpet, but cooked the same way.

I am no expert and stand to be corrected.

*** ”The correct way to toast muffins is not to split them and toast the two halves separately, as this makes them tough. Instead, cut them open, then close together again and toast slowly until warm right through, before opening out and buttering generously”.

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