Easy South African style Crumpets / American Mini Pancakes

South African Style Crumpets

One of my favorite relaxing treats is a hot cup of tea and South African style crumpets with butter and jam (my personal favorite is apricot jam). In America it may better be described as mini pancakes.

As most may know, we call food items by different names in the different countries. In South Africa a pancake is flat and thin like a crepe. In America a pancake is large in diameter and thick - I am not a fan of the excessive taste of baking powder used by most places I have ordered them from. That brings us to the crumpet. In the UK the authentic crumpet is small in diameter, thick in height and made with yeast. When I was growing up in South Africa our crumpets were small, not completely flat but not made with yeast. So if I have to describe it to my friends here in America I would call them mini pancakes. I am really not even going to start a debate on the proper terminologies but this is the way I love it!

Growing up, my brother and I would make this often on our own and very often without measurements. I wanted to pass the tradition of making them on to my 4yr old son so I put together a recipe with measurements to share with my friends as well. I prefer to have less sweetness in the crumpet itself since I love to serve it with a fruit jam that compliments it well. Feel free to increase sugar to your taste preference.

My son loves to bake and also loves the reward of eating the results at the end so he was very excited to help out.

It’s pretty simple where you first sift and combine dry ingredients, then whisk all the wet ingredients together except the butter. The trick i have learned over the years, in order to avoid a lumpy mixture, is to whisk about 2/3 of the wet ingredients first. You will get a sticky mixture like below.

Sticky mixture to avoid lumps

Once whisked and properly combined, add the rest of the liquid slowly and whisk until you get a smooth mixture (not too runny - different climates and egg size may result in a slight difference in qty of liquid needed so add the rest slowly). I always add the melted butter last. I find if you add it to the cold milk directly it becomes solid globs throughout the batter. That’s it - you should have a smooth looking mixture to ladle onto your hot, lightly greased non-stick pan/griddle/tava. Cook for about a minute on each side until golden brown. Serve warm with butter, jam and hot tea or coffee!

Drop on to thava with a ladle creating a nice round crumpet

Easy South African style Crumpets / American Mini Pancakes Recipe

Prep Time ~ 10 min

Cook Time ~ 2 min

Yield ~ 10 crumpets

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 Tbsp sugar (or more to taste)

• 1 pinch salt

• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter melted

• 220 ml milk

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method

1. Sift and combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a medium bowl.

2. Whisk egg, milk and vanilla essence in a separate bowl.

3. Add about 2/3 of the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk to create a sticky wet mixture. Add the rest of the wet ingredients slowly and whisk until smooth, dropping consistency - not too runny.

4. Add melted butter and whisk until combined and smooth.

5. Heat a flat non-stick pan, griddle or tava on medium heat. Grease very lightly with a tiny bit of butter.

6. Drop a medium size ladle of mixture onto the pan and cook until brown on each side.

7. Serve warm with butter, jam or syrup of choice and a lovely cup of tea or coffee.

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