Crumpets

Doneness

Done when the flat bottom is crisp and golden and the holed top is dry and just toasted, with the inside still soft and springy. A crumpet is cooked through when you buy it — the air fryer is only toasting it — so you are after a crisp shell and a warm, open-holed top that will drink up melting butter. Start holes-up so the surface dries, then flip near the end to crisp the smooth base. Pull it before the holes brown too far or the crumb dries out and goes tough.

Oil & seasoning

No oil — crumpets toast dry, and the butter goes on after they come out, sinking into the warm holes. A pre-spray would just leave them greasy. If anything, leave them bare and be generous with butter at the table.

Season with: Classic: lots of butter melted into the holes, with jam, honey, or marmalade on top., Savoury: butter and Marmite, or a poached egg and a slice of cheese., Sweet: clotted cream and strawberry jam, cream-tea style., Cinnamon-sugar butter or lemon curd for a quick sweet finish..

Watch out for

• !Toast holes-up first — flipping too early traps moisture and the open top stays gummy instead of drying to a toast.
• !Do not butter before cooking; butter the warm holes after so it melts in instead of frying off.
• !Watch the bottom near the end — the dense smooth base can scorch quickly once the surface dries.
• !Single-layer only; stacked crumpets steam each other and never crisp.
• !Frozen crumpets go straight in — no need to thaw, just add a minute.