Discard - crumpets
As ever, I’m chucking out a portion of my starter every morning and doing a feed. Standard stuff so far for my routine.
but I’m getting fed up with keep throwing out that much starter. Not that I don’t think it’s necessary but just a waste that I couldn’t think to do anything with it.
so in trying to find a way to use up, that which would otherwise be thrown out, I done a little research and discovered that you can - in the broadest of terms- use your discard for many things ei pancakes English muffins,waffles etc.
but being British, I do love a good crumpet every now and then. Oh and English muffins! I’m interest in the idea of baking them too, like many other things, but I’ve not got their yet ? I’ve not enough going spare lol.
The recipes for crumpets I found, that use discard all vary slightly but all ask for the same thing
discard
plain flour
salt
water
bicarb if soda
now after many failed attempts at cooking them as the mixture tends to burn if you do too much in a ring or cook them too quickly... I finally got the hang of it, sort off ?.
the issue I’m having is the ones I don’t burn, come out claggy, thin, spongy like cake and they are otherwise nowhere near what shop brought ones are like.
The flours I’m currently using are not likely to change at the moment as I’m trying to develop a starter with the same flour as im currently using in my bread loaves, so as to create a ranged profile on what I can bake with just that type of flour.
im not expecting miracles with it, it is a off cut after all but maybe a bit of clarity would help to improve a recipe that otherwise works, but could be improved.
my current recipe is
150 discard (made from 100 water, 50 whole meal flour, 50 strong flour, the remaining goes towards my fresh starter)
60 plain flour
60 water
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
could it be the flour type I’m using? The consistency of the batter? The amount of bicarb? Or something else entirely? Or is this how homemade ones come out as apposed to shop brought ones?
as silly as it is, my ones don’t have that “wow” its a crumpet factor (told you it was silly) and I’d really like to get them closer to what I consider “a proper crumpet” (yeah I know) ?
Not that I can try any more right now, as the weeks worth of gathered discard I’d saved has gone towards the burning of the nine I now have on my work top, and the four edible ones which, naturally I’ve now eaten. But if there is a chance of some feedback on what could be the issue, (for the batch il attempt next week now) it would be greatly appreciated.