Chef Thomas
A Proper Bacon Sandwich
Back bacon in a hot pan, good white bread, soft salted butter. Ten minutes between waking up and the first bite of something that makes the morning make sense.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Pikelets
Created by Chef Thomas
A crumpet's thinner, more spontaneous cousin, cooked without a ring on a hot griddle until the surface is covered in tiny holes that fill with melting butter. A Midlands kitchen on a Saturday morning.
Breakfast & Brunch
British
Weeknight
Quick Meal
15 min
Active Time
20 min cook•1 hr 15 min total
Yield12-14 pikelets
The batter is resting under a tea towel and the kitchen smells of yeast. Not the sharp, beery smell of bread dough, but something softer, sweeter, closer to the warmth of the room itself. This is the smell of a weekend morning with nowhere particular to be.
Pikelets are the crumpet's less formal relation. No rings, no fuss. You make a batter, let it rise, and drop spoonfuls onto a hot griddle where they spread into thin, holey discs that cook in a couple of minutes. They're a Midlands and Northern thing, though every family seems to have a slightly different version and a strong opinion about which one is correct. My version is the one I was taught: plain flour, yeast, a touch of sugar, and the patience to let the batter do its work.
The holes are the point. They form as the batter cooks, tiny craters opening across the surface like a landscape seen from a distance. When you spread butter on a warm pikelet, it melts into every one of those holes, and that first bite is soft, yielding, salty, and warm in a way that nothing else quite is. There are few better feelings than putting a plate of these in front of someone on a cold morning.
I wrote it down in the notebook years ago: pikelets, Saturday, rain against the window, the kitchen fogged. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. This one barely needs words.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
plain flour
Quantity
225g
fast-action dried yeast
Quantity
1 teaspoon
caster sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
bicarbonate of soda
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
whole milk
Quantity
200ml
warmed to blood temperature
warm water
Quantity
100ml
butter or neutral oil
Quantity
a little
for the griddle
salted butter
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| plain flour | 225g |
| fast-action dried yeast | 1 teaspoon |
| caster sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| bicarbonate of soda | 1/2 teaspoon |
| whole milkwarmed to blood temperature | 200ml |
| warm water | 100ml |
| butter or neutral oilfor the griddle | a little |
| salted butter | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy cast iron griddle or large frying pan
- •Mixing bowl
- •Whisk
- •Palette knife or fish slice
Instructions
- 1
Make the batter
Put the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm milk and water. Whisk it together until you have a smooth, thick batter, about the consistency of double cream. It should drop lazily from a spoon, not pour. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it somewhere warm for forty to fifty minutes. The surface will start to bubble and the batter will have risen noticeably, smelling yeasty and alive.
The milk and water should be warm, not hot. Test it against your wrist. If you can barely feel it, the temperature is right. Too hot and you'll kill the yeast before it has a chance to do anything useful. - 2
Add the bicarbonate
When the batter has risen and the surface is covered in small bubbles, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in a tablespoon of warm water and stir it through gently. The batter will fizz and puff slightly. Don't beat it. A few gentle strokes to incorporate. The bicarbonate gives the pikelets their holes, and overworking the batter closes them up.
- 3
Heat the griddle
Set a heavy frying pan or flat griddle over a medium heat. Grease it very lightly with a small knob of butter or a wipe of oil on kitchen paper. The pan needs to be properly hot but not smoking. If the butter browns the moment it touches the surface, it's too fierce. Drop a tiny bit of batter in. If it sets almost immediately and starts to form bubbles within seconds, you're ready.
- 4
Cook the pikelets
Drop a generous tablespoon of batter onto the griddle. It will spread naturally into a rough circle, thinner than a crumpet, about the width of your palm. Cook two or three at a time, leaving space between them. Within a minute or so, you'll see small holes forming across the surface, the batter setting around them as the bubbles burst. When the top has lost its wet shine and the underside is golden, a quick glance with a palette knife will tell you, flip it. The second side takes less time, thirty seconds or so, just enough to set and colour lightly. Stack the cooked pikelets in a clean tea towel to keep them soft and warm.
The first pikelet is always a test. The pan is finding its temperature and so are you. Adjust the heat after the first one and don't be discouraged if it's not perfect. Eat it standing at the stove with butter on it. Cook's privilege. - 5
Serve warm with butter
Eat them warm, stacked on a plate with a good amount of salted butter. The butter should melt into the holes, pooling in every small crater across the surface. Honey or jam if you like, but try the first one with just butter. The gentle yeastiness of the batter and the salt of the butter is all you need. Put the plate in the middle of the table and let people help themselves.
Chef Tips
- •The batter should be thinner than you expect. Thicker than pancake batter, thinner than crumpet batter. If it sits in a mound on the griddle instead of spreading gently, it needs loosening with a splash of warm water. If it runs to the edges of the pan like a crepe, it's gone too far. You'll know by the second one.
- •A cast iron griddle or a heavy, flat-bottomed frying pan makes the difference. Thin pans develop hot spots that burn the pikelets before the tops have set. Weight holds the heat steady. That's what you need here.
- •Pikelets are best eaten within the hour. If you have leftovers, let them cool completely and toast them the next day. They crisp at the edges and go soft in the middle, which is a different pleasure but a good one.
- •Don't skip the resting time. The yeast and the bicarbonate together give the pikelets their character: the rise, the holes, the soft chew. Without the rest, you're making flat pancakes. Nothing wrong with pancakes, but that's a different morning.
Advance Preparation
- •The batter can be made the night before and left to rise slowly in the fridge overnight. Bring it to room temperature for thirty minutes and stir through the bicarbonate just before cooking.
- •Cooked pikelets freeze well, layered between sheets of baking parchment, for up to a month. Toast from frozen until warm through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 45g)
Calories
115 calories
Total Fat
6 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
12 mg
Sodium
185 mg
Total Carbohydrates
14 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
2 g
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