Marmite Crumpets with Smoked Bacon

Love it or hate it, Marmite is a fantastic flavour when used to enhance the umami in a dish, this is exactly how we use it here. We guarantee if you hate Marmite you’ll love it on these crumpets. If your still not convinced that Marmite is for you, these crumpets are great with a thick slice of Lincolnshire Poacher, poached eggs, or with lashings of melted butter as a midnight snack.

Ingredients

Crumpet Batter
275ml Whole Milk
55ml water
250g plain flour
14g fresh yeast or 7g dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Marmite Custard
100g water
100ml whole milk
3 eggs
75g parmesan
20g Marmite

Smoked Bacon Crumb
200g smoked streaky bacon thinly sliced

Method

Crumpet batter

Warm the milk and water together in a saucepan until just tepid, stir in the yeast until dissolved leave for a few minutes to activate, you will be able to tell when it’s ready as the mixture will become foamy. Now in a separate bowl add the flour, salt and sugar, pour the foamy yeast mixture over the flour and mix well, cover with cling film and leave to prove in a warm place for about an hour, alternatively leave in the fridge overnight.

Marmite custard

Place all ingredients into a heavy based saucepan and scramble on a low heat, once the whole mixture has scrambled turn up the heat and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Take out of the pan and place into the fridge until set, once set blend in a jug blender until very smooth pour into a bowl and place back in the fridge until needed.

Bacon crumb

Lay the streaky bacon onto a baking sheet and place another one on top squashing the bacon in between. place into a preheated oven at 180°C and cook until very crispy, drain on a kitchen towel to removed excess fat, allow to cool. Once cold, chop as finely or as coarsely as you like and set aside.

Cooking the Crumpets and Assembly

Place a non stick frying pan on a medium heat with a knob of butter and the desired ring mould size you would like, once the butter starts foaming around the rings spoon in the batter. Cook until the crumpet starts to dry on the surface and comes away from the ring mould, remove the ring mould and flip the crumpet, cook on the other side until golden. Place the crumpets on a rack in a warm place whilst you cook more. To assemble thickly spread the Marmite custard over the warmed crumpet and place under a hot grill to heat, sprinkle with the bacon crumb and enjoy.