A crumpet (/ˈkrʌmpɪt/ ⓘ) is a small griddle bread made from an unsweetened batter of water or milk, flour, and yeast, popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada,[1] New Zealand, and South Africa.

[5] Small, oval pancakes baked in this manner were called picklets,[5] a name used for the first recognisable crumpet-type recipe, published in 1769 by Elizabeth Raffald in The Experienced English Housekeeper.

[7][8] The early 17th century lexicographer Randle Cotgrave referred to "popelins, soft bread of fine flour, &c., fashioned like our Welsh barrapycleds".

However, a correspondent to Manchester Notes and Queries, writing in 1883, claimed that the crampet, as it was locally then known, simply took its name from the metal ring or "cramp" used to retain the batter during cooking.

As late as the 1950s, Dorothy Hartley noted a wide degree of regional variation, identifying the small, thick, spongy type of crumpet specifically with the Midlands.

[17] A 1932 recipe for Staffordshire pikelets specifies that they were made with flour and buttermilk, with bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent, and suggests cooking them using bacon fat.

The ingredients include a leavening agent, usually baking powder, and different proportions of eggs, flour, and milk, which create a thin batter.