Kid-friendly GLUTEN-FREE High Tea English Crumpets! Recipe - Sticky Fingers Cooking
over 1,000 kid-approved recipes coming soon! save your flavorites
Recipes
/
Recipe: GLUTEN-FREE High Tea English Crumpets!

Recipe: GLUTEN-FREE High Tea English Crumpets!

GLUTEN-FREE High Tea English Crumpets!

by Erin Fletter
Photo by Lilly Trott/Shutterstock.com
prep time
40 minutes
cook time
30 minutes
makes
4-6 servings

Fun Food Story

Skip to recipe

GLUTEN-FREE High Tea English Crumpets!

Fancy a cuppa? In other words, would you like a cup of tea? High Tea is a tradition that has evolved from being humble to fancy, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to experience. Have you?? Getting dressed up, eating elegant finger foods, and drinking tea from bone china cups appeals most to my inner seven-year-old. Tea in Great Britain is a way of life. Even though afternoon tea has been a quintessential daily ritual for the British since the mid-1800s, drinking tea this way was not the norm for every household. High tea, in particular, was not originally a delicate affair. People who worked manual labor jobs couldn’t take time out to be served a cup of afternoon tea and biscuits. Their tea break came at the end of a long workday. It helped to perk up their energy levels and fill their stomachs before dinnertime, which was typically in the evening around 8 pm. They called it “high,” probably because they sat at higher kitchen tables rather than the low tables and comfortable chairs of the upper class. It’s so great that kids can replicate the "quick jam" and "sweet and savory butter" recipes free-form at home, even without a recipe. Although the crumpets require a recipe, the jam and butters are endlessly adaptable with whatever is in the fridge and pantry, with no cooking required. Enjoy creating your very own High Tea!

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Chef Erin, Food-Geek-in-Chief

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

  • grate :

    to reduce food, like a carrot, to very small shreds or pieces of the same size by rubbing it on a tool with an outside surface that has holes with cutting edges (a grater).

  • mash :

    to reduce food, like potatoes or bananas, to a soft, pulpy state by beating or pressure.

  • zest :

    to scrape off the outer colored part of a citrus fruit's rind (skin or peel) using a metal tool with small sharp blades, such as a zester, microplane, or the small holes of a grater (avoid the "pith," the white, spongy lining of the rind that can be bitter).

Equipment Checklist

  • Oven
  • Muffin pan
  • Saucepan (or heat-safe liquid measuring cup for microwave)
  • Mixing bowls (2)
  • Liquid measuring cup
  • Measuring spoons
  • Whisk
  • Dry measuring cups
scale
1X
2X
3X
4X
5X
6X
7X

Ingredients

GLUTEN-FREE High Tea English Crumpets!

  • 1 C whole milk **(for DAIRY ALLERGY sub dairy-free/nut-free milk)**
  • 1 T (or 1 packet ) active yeast
  • 2 T sugar
  • 1 egg **(for EGG ALLERGY sub 1 1/2 tsp oil + 1 1/2 T water + 1 tsp baking powder)**
  • 1 1/2 C gluten-free/nut-free all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 C sparkling water
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

Food Allergen Substitutions

GLUTEN-FREE High Tea English Crumpets!

  • Dairy: Substitute dairy-free/nut-free milk for whole milk.
  • Egg: For 1 egg, substitute 1 1/2 tsp oil + 1 1/2 T water + 1 tsp baking powder.

Instructions

GLUTEN-FREE High Tea English Crumpets!

1.
measure + add

Heat 1 cup milk until it is lukewarm. Measure and add 1 tablespoon of yeast to the milk in a mixing bowl. Measure and add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the bowl, too.

2.
mix + rest + grease + preheat

Whisk milk with yeast and sugar and let rest for 10 to 20 minutes. Whisk the egg into the mixture. Generously grease a muffin pan with butter. Place the pan in your oven and preheat the oven to 350 F.

3.
add + mix + rest

To a separate mixing bowl, add 1 1/2 cups of gluten and nut free flour and 1 teaspoon of salt, then add to the milk mixture until well combined. Next, mix 1 cup of sparkling water and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and add to your batter. Mix one more time, then let rest at room temp for at least 20 minutes or until the batter doubles in size. Meanwhile, make the Quickest Fruit Jam! (see recipe)

4.
pour + bake + toast

Remove muffin pan from the oven, then pour batter halfway up each well. Bake the Crumpets for 20 to 30 minutes, or until they are cooked through. Meanwhile, mix up Sweet and Savory Butters! Once the Crumpets have baked, set your oven to "broil" and let the tops toast to a golden brown. Careful! They will toast fast and can burn easily. Serve warm with Quickest Fruit Jam (see recipe), Sweet and Savory Butters (see recipe), and Proper Tea (see recipe)!

Surprise Ingredient: Flour!

back to recipe
Photo by WiP-Studio/Shutterstock.com

Hi! I’m Flour!

"Happy Baking, Friends! I'm Flour, and I'm a VIP (Very Important Powder)! I'm really quite useful (and humble). You can use me to make breads, cakes, cookies, crackers, crumpets, doughnuts, muffins, pancakes, pasta, waffles, and more. (Which is your favorite?) I can coat vegetables and meats before frying them in oil, and you can combine me with a fat to make a roux to thicken sauces and gravies. You can even make play dough and glue with me. Can you see now why I'm a VIP?"

History 

  • Around 8,000 to 15,000 years ago, people discovered that they could crush wheat seeds between simple grindstones to make flour. 
  • When you grind cereal grains, beans, seeds, or roots (like cassava), they become a powder, resulting in flour. Some of the grains besides wheat that can be ground into flour are rye, buckwheat, barley, corn, oat, and rice. Other foods used to make flour are potatoes, acorns, mesquite, cassava, soybeans, garbanzo beans (or chickpeas), amaranth, and even bananas! 
  • Flour is the primary component of bread, and bread is a staple in many countries. Therefore, sufficient amounts of flour are critical, which has caused major economic and political issues at various times throughout history. 

Anatomy & Etymology

  • Before grains are ground into flour, they are whole pieces taken from a plant. 
  • Each kernel of wheat consists of three parts: the coarse outer bran layer (which contains most of the fiber), the germ, and the endosperm. The endosperm stores the grain's starch, a carbohydrate that the body uses to create energy. Other foods that contain starch are potatoes, pasta, and rice.
  • Whole-wheat flour is the result of grinding or milling the whole grain. It contains all three parts of the kernel—bran, endosperm, and germ.
  • White flour has been refined or polished and bleached to remove the bran. As a result, white flour has less fiber than whole-wheat flour and fewer nutrients, too.  
  • The word "flour" is originally a variant of the word "flower." Both derive from the Old French "fleur" or "flour," literally "blossom," and figuratively "the finest" (of the milled grain). 

How Flour is made

  • Flour is made in nearly every country in the world. 
  • First, farmers plant wheat seeds, and plants begin to grow. Then, when they are ready to harvest, farmers collect them with giant machines called combines. 
  • Combines cut, separate, and clean the wheat at the same time. The grain must be completely dry before storing, so farmers don't harvest it when it's rainy. 
  • Then, they transfer the flour to a mill (a building where grains are ground into flour), where a miller will oversee the grinding of the wheat grain into flour.
  • One whole wheat grain makes over 20,000 particles of flour!

Nutrition

  • Flour contains protein and is a significant source of carbohydrates.
  • Carbohydrates are a direct source of energy for the body. Our bodies first have to make some changes to the carbohydrates, but then they are quickly converted to energy by our cells.
  • Fiber helps to keep our intestines happy, feeding the good bacteria in our gut. Whole-wheat, unbleached flour is an excellent source of fiber.
  • Whole wheat contains essential nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, protein, and fiber.
  • Organic, unbleached flour is the healthiest.
  • Wheat-free and gluten-free flours are vital to people who have celiac disease, wheat allergies, or gluten intolerance (or non-celiac gluten sensitivity). Varieties of gluten-free flours include those made from: almonds, amaranth, buckwheat, corn, garbanzo beans (or chickpeas), millet, quinoa, rice, sorghum, soybeans, and teff. 

 

History of Crumpets!

Photo by RCH Photographic for Shutterstock
  • Crumpets may have originated in Wales or with the Anglo-Saxon people in England. Small, oval breads were often cooked on a griddle in the absence of a bread oven. They were more like a hard pancake until the Victorian era when yeast was added, and they became more like we know them now. In the 19th century, baking soda began to be added, too.
  • Crumpets have a soft, chewy, and spongy texture with small holes throughout the surface. They are made from water or milk, flour, and yeast, then molded into round shapes with crumpet molds or rings. Next, they are cooked on a griddle until almost done and toasted before eating. 
  • Crumpets resemble English muffins but are made from batter, not dough, and they are slightly chewier. In fact, a crumpet could be loosely considered a cross between a pancake and an English muffin.

Let's learn about England!

Photo by Tomsickova Tatyana/Shutterstock.com
  • England is ruled by a Monarch, a Prime Minister, and a Parliament. Windsor Castle is the oldest royal castle in the world that is still being used by the royal family.
  • England is on the island of Great Britain, along with Wales and Scotland. It is also part of the United Kingdom, which consists of those three countries and Northern Ireland. 
  • Did you know that there's no place in the UK that is more than 70 miles from the sea?! 
  • Stonehenge is a construction of immense stones that the early inhabitants of what's now Wiltshire, England, began building around 3100 BCE. The final sections were completed around 1600 BCE. Scientists are still not sure how or why they built it. One theory for its purpose is an astronomical observatory. It is very popular with tourists.
  • Other popular tourist spots in England include the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament (Palace of Westminster), the Roman Baths and the city of Bath, and the Lake District.  
  • London, the capital city, wasn't always called that. In the past, its name was Londonium.
  • England took part in the briefest war in history. They fought Zanzibar in 1896, and Zanzibar surrendered after just 38 minutes!
  • There have been several influential English authors, but perhaps the most well-known is William Shakespeare, who wrote classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet.
  • English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.
  • The British really like their sandwiches—they eat almost 11.5 billion a year!

What's It Like to Be a Kid in England?

  • Most schools in England require students to wear a school uniform. 
  • Sports kids play include football (soccer), cricket, rugby, tennis, netball (similar to basketball), and rounders (similar to baseball). They also play video games, watch the telly, and ride bikes or skateboards.
  • Boxing Day is a unique holiday kids celebrate in England the day after Christmas, December 26. The official public holiday is the first weekday after Christmas if Boxing Day falls on a weekend. When the English created the holiday, it was the day to share the contents of alms boxes with the poor. Today, it is mostly a day off from school and work, although some small gifts may be given out to family and employees, or collected to give to the poor.
  • English kids may have different names for everyday items also found in the United States. For example, a kid will call his mom "mum." Their backyard is a "garden." A big truck is called a "lorry," and the trunk of a car is a "boot." Biscuits in the US are closest to the British "scones," and cookies in England are "biscuits." A TV is usually called a "telly." Bags of chips are referred to as bags of "crisps." French fries, like those from a fast-food hamburger place, might be called "fries," but if they are thicker, like the ones typically served with batter-fried fish, they're called "chips" (fish and chips). Finally, kids call the fish sticks they might have for lunch "fish fingers.

That's Berry Funny

"Knock, knock!"

"Who's there?" 

"Yeast."

"Yeast who?"

"At yeast I knocked!"

Lettuce Joke Around

What did the butter say to the bread? 

"I'm on a roll!'

That's Berry Funny

When does bread rise?

When you yeast expect it to!

That's Berry Funny

What did the yeast confess to the bag of flour? 

I loaf you dough much!

The Yolk's On You

What did the yeast say to the bag of flour? 

Come on, we knead to be serious!

Shop Our Cookbooks

Now available on Amazon! Our cookbooks feature kid-tested recipes that build confidence in the kitchen. Expand your child's palate and spark a love of healthy foods with a Sticky Fingers Cooking cookbook.
SHOP NOW

Subscribe to the Sticky Fingers Cooking mailing list

Subscribe to our newsletter, The Turnip, to receive exclusive discounts and updates, insider tips + tricks from our awesome team, and instant access to the Sticky Fingers Cooking Starter Kit for free!

"
X
Selling like hotcakes!
47 registered for a session in the last 24 hours