The BEST Gluten Free Crumpets Recipe — Skinny Beets - Gluten Free and Vegetarian Cooking (2024)

Makes: 8-10 traditional sized crumpets

Takes: 15 minutes plus 45 minute raising time

Skill Level: Intermediate

Having a trans-Atlantic family means having (in my opinion) the best of both worlds when it comes to foods. I’ve always loved toasted crumpets and I knew that they could be made at home, but never took the time to try because the store bought ones were so good. Things change quickly when there’s a Celiac/Coeliac diagnosis in the household and one of the things we couldn’t find at the store were good gluten free crumpets.

It took some time to gain the confidence to start baking even just simple gluten free loaves, but after tasting the results of these first bakes, we knew that baking from scratch wasn’t just the sensible thing to do, it was a powerhouse of deliciousness and joy.

Creating the perfect gluten free crumpet

So, the next sensible thing was to learn our old favorites and modify them to not only be gluten free, but also perfected to our palettes. English crumpets had been on the to do list for a while and it was the simplest of things that hampered my first attempts, which was obtaining the rings in which to fry the dough. Eventually, I ordered a set of crumpet rings from Amazon (there are multiple sizes to choose from but I went for standard) when I ordered my next load of gluten free flours. You can find the link to the ones we bought, along with our favorite flours and ingredients in our SHOP GLUTEN FREE PAGES.

With this recipe you will be using plain gluten free flour (the King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour works very well). Early attempts at the crumpets left them a little too flat - I had the heat too high at first and the dough hadn’t had enough time to properly rise due to the unseasonably cold weather. But the next two attempts were a dream.

As with most gluten free flours, the key to keeping the end result moist and not dry is to add either some olive oil or applesauce to the mix. It also helps to ensure you’ve let the flour absorb the moisture by letting it sit for at least ten minutes after mixing. As this is a yeasted dough that requires raising time, we’re golden.

Keeping it IBS friendly

You’ll see here, as with all our breads, we do not use sugar or honey but instead, opt for pure maple syrup as a sweetener. This isn’t just down to personal taste. Many celiacs are sensitive to sugars and can have gut pain with honey. If this isn’t a problem for you, you can replace the maple syrup with 1.5 tsp of sugar or 1 tsp of honey. But we think you’ll like the maple syrup method better. It’s low FODMAP, IBS friendly and tastes amazing. Just make sure you you pure maple syrup, not maple flavored high fructose corn syrup which has a myriad of health complications and will be throwing the flavors totally off.

If you’re not sure why pure maple syrup is so great, or if you wondered if it was worth the price, be sure to read our post about pure maple syrup and its culinary and health benefits HERE.

Our special ingredients that make gluten free crumpets so good

I’ve heard many complaints from traditional bakers on how gluten free crumpets ‘just don’t work’. They do! You just need to change up the method and understand a little better how gluten free flours work. Adding xanthan gum (it’s already in some gluten free flours) and psyllium husk powder can add structure to the gluten free dough that wouldn’t be needed for traditional wheat flours.

Also, there is the timing and the texture. As mentioned above, a little bit of olive oil or applesauce can go a long way to make a moist gluten free bread. This dough should be like a thick pancake batter. If your dough feels dry, get the dough hook back out and add 1/4 cup of additional milk and mix it in. As each gluten free flour blend might have a slightly different level of absorption, you do need to be a bit more malleable as a gluten free cook.

Extra yeast

In this recipe, we use 2 tablespoons of dry active yeast to really get the air pockets that are so iconic for this bread. Many other recipes require additional self-raising flour to the mix, but we prefer it this way. There is no fear of using too much yeast in a gluten-free dough like with traditional baking, but if you are a traditionalist and really want to stick to just one, that’s okay too - just give your dough a little more extra time to rise.

Are rings for gluten free crumpets necessary?

New bakers often wonder if they can make crumpets without the rings and the answer is, yes! However, it can be more tricky and will lead to a lower crumpet because it didn’t have the walls to help it stay ‘high up’ while it was frying. We use a very basic crumpet ring (it comes in a set of four) which you can find (affiliate link) HERE. There are fancier crumpet rings out there and they all work great! Some day we may upgrade to a fancier crumpet ring, but for now these work just dandy.

Do please make sure all your ingredients are truly gluten free. It’s astounding to me how many products are now made in facilities that allow for cross contamination. If you’re not sure and it’s not labelled on the packaging, you can look online or even call up the company.

Now let’s get baking!

You Will Need:

• 415 ml (1.75 cups) almond milk (or milk of your choice but not coconut milk as the flavor will overpower the bread)

• 30 ml olive oil (1/8 cup)

• 1 tsp pure maple syrup

• 2 TBSP dry active yeast

• 300 grams (2.4 cups) gluten free white flour

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder

• 1 tsp psyllium husk powder

• crumpet rings

• a shallow frying pan

• oil for frying (canola works well)

Method:

• First, warm the milk in a pan to a comfortable 79-80 degrees F (or, a nice bathwater temperature). Remove from heat and add the maple syrup and yeast. While the yeast activates (this should take just a few minutes and look a little frothy), start prepping the dry ingredients.

• Add the olive oil to the yeast mixture after the yeast has activated.

• Then put the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix with a fork.

• Once the yeast mixture is frothy and the olive oil has been added, make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the yeast mixture. Mix well (3 minutes on low with an electric mixer with a dough hook if you have one) until combined, cover loosely with cling film, then let sit in a warm spot for 45 minutes or until the dough rises. If the dough is too dry and not feeling like a thick pancake batter, mix in extra milk (1/4 cup should do) until it’s the right consistency and set it aside to raise.

  *** On cold days, this process can take much longer, so turn the heating on if you need to, or if your oven has a bread raising setting, use that ***

• Now get out your frying pan and crumpet rings. Add enough oil to the pan so that a thin layer of oil coats the bottom. Grease the inside of the crumpet rings (I use olive oil, but you can use any oil or butter you like) and put the crumpet rings (as many as you can fit flat) into the frying pan.

• Heat the pan to low and when the oil is hot, scoop or ladle out the dough, filling each ring with 1/2-1 inch depth of dough. Allow them to cook through, gently popping any bubbles that come to the surface with a toothpick.

• Once the dough is looking solid, you can gently remove the rings (use a fork to avoid burnt fingers) and flip the crumpets over to fry the other side. The first side should take about 3-5 minutes and once flipped the other side will be about a minute.

• If you have more dough, re-grease the rings and repeat the process until all the dough is used up.

Now that you have your crumpets, you can either fridge them, freeze them, or toast them right away!

Crumpets are meant to be toasted and buttered, but you can add your favorite gluten-safe jams or Meridian (gluten free version of Marmite) and try your best not to hum with joy while you eat. Try them with our favorite spicy cranberry jelly if you like a little heat!

Enjoy!

Editor’s note: We aim to make delicious gluten free recipes, but we’re also catering to those who have additional health needs. Those who have celiac, also often suffer from lactose intolerance (we found out the hard way!) which is why our ingredients are usually milk-free. Sensitive guts have a hard time with traditional sweeteners and rich butter, which is why again, we swap these out for a healthier alternative. If you want to know more about celiac disease, you can visit these amazing websites which have helped our family immeasurably. Beyond Celiac has some amazing resources that we go back to often and Celiac.org is our resource for new and old celiac research. They are both working hard to find a cure to celiac disease and have some great additional links. Also, speak to you doctor if you think you might have celiac disease or something similar.