While doing some looking around it seems that if you want the "Nook and Cranny Effect" a wet batter dough has to be used. Batter is placed in rings on griddle flipping once. No need to use oven. Here are two recipes.
Cooks Recipes Ala Ciabatta with overnight preferment.
and Food Network Quick Method.

Okay- I went through about 10 different crumpet recipes (some with fat, some without, some with yeast, some without, some with  yada yada yada...) before finding one which, to me, made the perfect crumpet.  My benchmark here is Wolferman's crumpets.  I am aware that everyone has a different opinion on who makes the best whatsis, but to me Wolferman's wins on this one and that's what I was trying to replicate.  

As an additional note, I made about 12 batches of these and froze them to take camping with us this past fall.  They toasted up amazingly over a campfire either on sticks or in bulk in the grill basket we had.  If you've never had a freshly toasted homeade crumpet with homemade peach preserves and loads of melted butter while camping, well, you just haven't camped yet! 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup warm (approx. 110°F) water

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 cup warm (approx. 110°F) milk

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (for crumpets) or 2 2/3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (for English muffins)

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup lukewarm water

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine the warm water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and let sit until foamy. Add the warm milk and salt to the yeast mixture, then stir in the flour. Beat hard, using an electric mixer, for 5 minutes (this beating, as well as the addition of baking soda just before cooking, will help the finished muffin develop its holes). Cover bowl, set in a warm place, and let batter rise for 3 hours, or until it is very bubbly. Don't worry if the batter bubbles up, then falls down; if it does, just proceed to the next step.

Dissolve the baking soda in the 1/4 cup lukewarm water, and stir it gently into the batter. Let rise again, this time for only 30 minutes.

Heat a greased plett pan (first choice), frying pan or griddle over low heat for 10 minutes. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each ring in the plett pan, or spoon batter into circular shapes on a griddle or frying pan. Tuna cans, well-cleaned and with both ends cut off, are useful in containing the crumpet batter. Just set them on your frying surface, being sure to grease well first.

Crumpet batter will spread easily; English muffin batter, which is thicker, needs to be nudged into a round shape with the back of a spoon or fork.

Let English muffins cook 5 to 8 minutes, or until bottoms are golden, then flip over and let the other side cook the same amount of time, removing from pan when both sides are brown.

For crumpets, cook 8 minutes without turning; tops will be uncolored but dry, and full of holes. Place muffins on a wire rack to cool. To serve, split English muffins and toast; toast crumpets without splitting. Serve with butter and jam, or a fruit butter, such as the one that follows. Makes approximately 16 3-inch muffins.

helend

My advice don't worry!

Where I come from in the West of England we call crumpets pikelets (also pytchy bread). Really pikelets are crumpets without the rings - you just drop spoonfuls of batter onto the hot iron or griddle.

This is a very good recipe

Makes 6 crumpets or 12 pikelets (crempog and pyglyd in Welsh)

5 oz strong plain flour (bread flour)
5 oz plain white flour (cake flour or italian 00)
1 tsp salt
1 rounded tsp easy-blend yeast
12 fl oz lukewarm milk and water
lard (or unsalted butter) for greasing griddle/heavy frying pan

Preheat oven to 275f/140c/gas mark 1

Warm the flour in the oven.

Stir in salt and yeast then liquid and beat vigourously with a wooden spoon until batter is smooth and elastic.

Cover the bowl and leave to rise for 1-2 hours in warm place.

Lightly grease griddle and 6 rings if using and preheat both griddle AND rings.

Thin down batter with a little warm water if necessary and either spoon into rings or slowly spoon onto griddle.

If holes don't appear wthin a few seconds the batter may be too thick.

Cook over moderately high heat until holey and appear dry on top. Crumpets should take about 7 minures, pikelts 4-5.

Slip crumpets out of rings and flip over for 2-3 minutes - they shouldn't really brown on this side. Eat hot with lots of butter!

Apparantly commercial bakers make crumpets extra-holey by adding a quarter tsp of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 3 tbs of warm water to the risen dough and then leaving another 30 minutes. I've never tried this so...

I haven't yet mastered the art of photographing food before it gets eaten but plan on making these tomorrow so will try to take some pics.

Baking makes you smile!

Try going to your local auto repair shop. See if they will cut up some pistons for you into rings. That is what I did. They work great

Scottyj

I just made my first english muffins and they were huge. I had the same problem with the 2nd and 3rd batches rising so much that they didn't cook all the way, so I am taking your advice and preheating my oven to 350 so I can finish baking them. Also, I had to smash them a little to fit them in my toaster and even then I had to dig them out (after unplugging the toaster). I was disappointed because they didn't have the big holes I was expecting, but my hubby really loves them.   

What did the in-laws think? Were there any left for them to try?

If you can get some yogurt, you can make cream cheese by letting it hang in cheese cloth (or a clean cloth hanky) and drip a day or two in a cool place. (tip: don't use drink yogurt)

Mini O

I'm kinda late but try recipe # 268217 on Recipezaar.com  For some reason I cannot copy and paste onto this site or I would post the whole recipe. Hope this works for you if you have not already found something.

These are lovely looking muffins.  I like the nooks and crannies...Is this Floyd's recipe?

Sylvia

They were holier than I expected given that it wasn't a super-wet dough, but I did make it rather sticky. Actually that's why I didn't cut them out - the dough was much too blobby to handle in that way.

 Deb

These are beautiful English muffins. I am less concerned with the nooks and crannies than the taste. Thomas's are my favorite commercial brand; they have the unique, authentic EM flavor that most other brands lack. Does this recipe give you that flavor, or has anyone found one that does?

Where did you purchase the rings if you dont mind me asking?  I have looked at a few online and the reviews on some of them arent to great. Thanks

Sally the sourdough ones are gr8. They were the first ones that I had made and I did them with WW flour.

Scott

 The crumb turned out a little tighter than I like it, but maybe I was not gentle enough handling them. Make sure to sprinkle some cornmeal on the parchment paper or Silpat before resting the dough balls on top,  so that you retain the airy quality of the dough

Judging from the lovely shape and height you got, I don't think that rough handling was the reason for the tight crumb. I think that's just the way this recipe turns out. I had the same result, even if I used parchment to transfer each muffin to the griddle (nothing could be gentler). I think we need higher hydration and a longer proofing, probably in muffin rings, to get bigger holes. Beautiful job, btw!

So what did you think of the flavor? I made that recipe with milk (I had no buttermilk at the time) and found it a bit boring. I'll try again with the buttermilk now that I've made some.